


In the Shadow of the Beasts

by rylek196



Category: Shadow of the Colossus
Genre: Eventual Canonical Character Death, Eventual Romance, F/M, Flashbacks, Mentions Of Events That Really Happened, Pseudo-Historical Fiction (Mongol Empire To Be Precise), WanderXMono
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-07-29 03:41:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16255928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rylek196/pseuds/rylek196
Summary: In the wake of death, there is sorrow. There is wrath. There is desperation. There is revenge. There is bloodshed. And in the end there is nothing but shadow. A retelling of Shadow of the Colossus.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome, one and all, to my novelization of Shadow of the Colossus, which, as you can plainly see, is now on Archive Of Our Own as well as FFN! Now, before we begin, I think a bit of a history lesson on this thing is needed for some context. This story was first posted to FFNet in 2014 and was indeed completed that first time around, but I walked away thoroughly unsatisfied with it, and so, in late 2016, I decided to rewrite it from the ground up, which is obviously what this is. As for the original, don't go bother looking for it, as it's gone forever, and quite frankly, that's for the best. As you could also hopefully see in the tags, this implements elements of real history into it, but that has no bearing on this opening prologue. However, as we get deeper into this thing, I highly encourage you to read the notes I have put up on my FFN profile, as it clears up and explains some things that I couldn't fit into the chapters. With that said, enjoy.

**In The Shadow of the Beasts Redux**

 

By: Rylek196

 

Prologue: To the Ancient Land

 

 _This wasn't supposed to happen,_ a young man on horseback thought. _None of it. It just_ should not _have happened._

 

Of all the thoughts swirling in his brain, this was the most prevalent. The sense of... wrongness, about his whole situation. As he carefully manoeuvred the horse he rode- Agro, her name was, judging by the label above the stall he had stolen her from- along the treacherous path inside the canyon, one feeling stood out from the rest.

 

That feeling was rage. Pure, white-hot fury. Fury at what had happened, fury at what he had been forced to resort to, fury at _them_ for taking her from him...

 

His dark thoughts abruptly paused as a hawk flew by his head, narrowly missing him. He adjusted the cloth-covered bundle attached to Agro's saddle, for it was the most precious cargo imaginable to him, then continued on. Perhaps, he thought, it would best to think about simple things. His name, for one. His name was Wander. That was a start.

 

He next thought of his appearance and apparel, though he knew neither mattered much in the grand scheme of things. He was wearing the standard uniform of his village's militia- a tan tunic with shorts of a slightly darker shade, tough leather greaves that covered his shins, and an ornate tabard worn over the tunic, which covered his chest and back and trailed down to slightly below his waist.

 

He once again stopped, but for a different reason. There was a slight gap in the path ahead, and making sure yet again his cargo was secure, he had Agro back up a bit, and jump it. He looked back at the gap and sneered, spiting the fact that it existed.

 

Moving on, he continued with his thoughts. Where was he? Ah, yes, his physical appearance. He had hair that was a cherry-red colour held back with a blue hairband, a plain, if pale, face, a very toned, muscular build, and grey-green eyes. Everyone knew that eyes were windows to a person's soul, and anyone who knew even a bit about psychology could tell that despite their nonthreatening colour, Wander's eyes were two boiling lakes of anger.

 

He had always been savage, even as a young boy, hunting animals and skinning them alive for the fun of it, and eighteen years of being alive had only honed his psychopathic nature. It was no wonder he was feared in the militia. His fellow archery cadets, as he himself was an archer, were wary of angering him, lest they bring his wrath down on their heads.

 

He had initially wanted to hone his skills with a sword, and become a soldier in the regular military, but he had been denied. Mastering a blade took a certain amount of discipline, and while Wander was incredibly bloodthirsty- something that was prized in the ranks- his insolence kept him from taking up the blade. Not that it stopped him from having one now. He was well aware of the consequences for what he had done, but he didn't care.

 

He turned a slightly upward-slanted bend in the path, one which afforded him a great view of the clouds illuminated by the full moon, and kept going.

 

It was several more hours of riding before he came to a marshy forest, the moonlight filtering through the treetops. Agro's hooves kicked up dead leaves as she trundled on. Wander wished he could go faster than a slow trot, but riding any faster risked dislodging his cargo. So, he was forced to keep going at a measured pace, his patience wearing ever thinner. It was just a good thing he knew where his destination was.

 

The forest eventually grew more and more narrow, coming to a head between two short, rock walls. By now it was dawn, and Wander could see his destination on the horizon. However, it had started to rain. _Damn it!_ Wander mentally cursed. _Of all the bloody things that had to happen, why this!?_

 

To avoid the constant onslaught of falling water, he steered Agro under an overhang on the right rock wall. He had been riding all night, and was tired. Careful not to jostle his cargo, he slipped out of Agro's saddle, taking a seat on the ground, his back to the rock. Agro moved to lay down too, but was stopped by a growl from Wander. “You will not rest until I say you can,” he said threateningly. “We'll continue on once I've had a nap- rain or no rain.”

 

Agro snorted as Wander closed his eyes, falling into a light sleep. About half an hour later, Wander awoke, mounted Agro, and rode ever onward. The rain had by now lessened into a light drizzle. While annoying, it did not deter him as he rode across a plain, and soon enough, the rain stopped, leaving only puddles behind.

 

The day had progressed to an hour before noon when he finally came to his destination: a great stone wall. Obviously man-made, it was tall, with twenty-four pillars in rows of twelve on either side, though most of them on one side had fallen or been destroyed, leaving only sixteen standing. In the centre of the wall was a deep slit that ran the entire height of it. Just barely wide enough to allow horse and rider with his bundle passage through, Wander looked upon the place he had been trying to get to.

 

The Forbidden Lands. A vast, unknown and feared terrain, it was this landscape that Wander hoped held the power he needed to accomplish his task. The first thing he saw was the enormous bridge. Spanning from the cliffsides upon which Wander now stood to the massive tower-like structure he could see kilometres away, it was enough to make any architect commit ritual suicide out of shame. The grand white construction was held up by elegantly curved tresses, too many to count. Downwards they plunged, stabbing the ground at various points in the vast desert that Wander could see made up most of the north of the Forbidden Lands.

 

His heart pounding in his chest, Wander began to carefully guide Agro across the bridge. There were no guardrails, no safety feature in place along the sides; one wrong move meant death. Eventually, he made it to the massive tower- the Shrine of Worship. The entrance to the Shrine was a stone door, which slid ominously upward as he neared it. Agro whinnied and squirmed in agitation, Wander kicking her sides harshly to get her moving once again. “Let's go,” he grumbled.

 

The opened door revealed a staircase leading down. At the bottom of the stairs, was a giant, cylindrical room, with a narrow, spiralling ramp serving as a path to the bottom. Yet again, it took some careful riding to get Agro to the bottom of the ramp, as it was obviously made only for people on foot, not horseback.

 

A pool of still water lay in the centre of the circular room, though Wander gave it only a passing glance. What he was seeking lay just beyond this room.

 

Going through one more arched entryway, he at last ventured into the giant main hall of the Shrine of Worship. A wide, long room, built of grey stone with a high, vaulted ceiling and an alter at the end, this was where the power he was seeking lay hidden. The most striking feature of this room, though, were the huge alcoves on either side of the hall. There were two rows of eight alcoves, each holding a massive, ornately carved statue.

 

Wander eyed each one in turn as he rode down to the end of the hall. Just looking at them gave him an odd feeling, like the statues were somehow not of this world, like something other than the hands of men had created them.

 

He reared Agro to a halt under a hole in the ceiling that let the light of the sun into the Shrine. He dismounted, taking a second to stretch his legs. He then reached up to Agro's saddle, unclipping the bundle where it had been attached. Taking the cargo into his arms, he walked up to the alter, placing it upon its surface.

 

With a dramatic flourish, he pulled the cloth away, revealing his cargo to be the body of a young woman. She was clothed in a simple but elegant long-sleeved white dress, green and purple designs adorning it. He looked down at the corpse, the rage in his eyes growing more potent.

 

Once, this brown-haired maiden had a name, a life, and a purpose in his. Her name was Mono, the light- and love- of his life. She was the one that had somewhat tempered the wrath in his heart, showed him there was more to life than just killing and death and anger. And somewhere along the line, he had fallen for her.

 

 _And they took her from me,_ he thought. _They fucking took her. Them and their absurd, damnable beliefs..._

 

When she died, or rather, was murdered in cold blood, all her teachings to him had gone up in the fires of wrath. There was only one thing that mattered to him now: Bringing her back. At any cost. It didn't matter if he had to go down to the bowels of Hell itself to bring her soul back.

 

A memory came to him then. It was of him, and several other militia recruits, years ago, sitting around a fire, listening to their village's leader and prime shaman, Lord Emon, recite an esoteric monologue. He could practically hear the crackling of the fire and the smell of the smoke, the mental visual was so vivid.

 

“ _That place...”_ Emon had said, _“Began with the resonance of intersecting points... They are memories replaced by ens and naught and etched into stone. Blood, young sprouts, sky- and the one with the ability to control beings created from light... In that world, it is said that if one should wish it one can bring back the souls of the dead... ...But to trespass upon that land is strictly forbidden.”_

 

Wander had never forgotten that speech. It remained one of his clearest memories, though he had no idea why.

 

Unknown to Wander due to his recollections, something was happening in the hall behind him. With disgusting yet quiet slurping sounds, several humanoid beings made of shadow were emerging from the floor. He was only alerted when Agro neighed in fear.

 

Turning around, he saw the shadow beings. “What is this!?” he yelled, placing his hand on the hilt of his sword. “I swear, if any of you... _creatures_ wish further harm on me, I'll cut you all down!”

 

With that, he ripped the blade from its sheath. The sword he carried was no ordinary piece of sharpened metal- it was a sacred artifact to a lond-dead people. The Ancient Sword. Forged by unknown hands in elder days, it was nicknamed 'The Magic Killer' due to its rumoured ability to destroy any magical spell, object, or being, simply by stabbing it.

 

Its next ability, Wander then demonstrated as he thrust the blade forward into open air. A beam of light surged forth from the blade, washing away the shadow beings like the tide does to a sandcastle. That was the Ancient Sword's other power- the ability to lead the user to any magical artifact simply by holding it up to the light.

 

Suddenly, there was a noise like the rumbling of thunder, and a deep, guttural voice boomed throughout the Shrine. **“Hmm? Thou possesses the Ancient Sword? So thou art mortal...”**

 

Wander at first was taken aback, then he remembered what the restricted texts he had read about the Forbidden Land had said.

 

“Are you Dormin?” he asked. “I was told that in this place at the ends of the world, there existed a being who can control the souls of the dead.” He sheathed his sword, hearing no threat from the voice.

 

The cloth that had once concealed Mono's corpse blew away as Dormin replied. **“Thou art correct... we are the one known as Dormin...”**

 

Wander gestured at Mono. His voice turned grim, shaking with barely contained rage. “Sh-she was... sacrificed, for it was told to me she had a cursed fate. I _refuse_ to believe it. Please... I need you to bring back her soul...”

 

The voice of Dormin seemed to snicker, an action that made Wander's blood reach boiling point. **“Heh heh heh hah-ha... That** **maiden's soul? Souls that are lost cannot be reclaimed... Is that not the law of mortals?”**

 

His anger at hearing that sentence from his last hope finally made Wander snap. “I don't _care_ if it's the law of mortals or not!” he yelled, furious tears forming in his eyes. “She was taken from me, and I want her _back! Give her back to me!”_

 

“ **Thou art a wrathful mortal...”** Dormin said. **“We sense much anger in thy heart... Still, calm thyself... We did not say bringing her soul back was not possible...”**

 

Wander's anger evaporated in a heartbeat, replaced by desperate, almost insane hope. “Really!?”he cried. “How!? Tell me how!”

 

“ **The sword that thou carries is the key...”** Dormin explained. **“We can bring her back... that is, of course, if thou manages to accomplish what we askest...”**

 

“What do I have to do?” Wander asked, the spot of hope in his chest growing ever larger.

 

“ **Behold the idols that stand along these walls...”** Dormin said. **“Thou art to destroy all of them. But those idols cannot be destroyed- not by the mere hands of a mortal...”**

 

“Then what am I to do?” Wander asked.

 

“ **In this land, there exists Colossi that are the incarnations of those idols,”** Dormin told him. **“If thou defeat those Colossi... the idols shall fall.”**

 

“I understand,” Wander said firmly.

 

“ **But heed this, the price you pay may be heavy indeed.”** Dormin warned him.

 

Wander looked back at Mono with clenched fists. _I swore I would go to any lengths to get you back, Mono,_ he thought. _If this is what I have to do, then so be it._ He looked up at the hole in the ceiling where Dormin presumably dwelt. _“It doesn't matter,”_ he said.

 

“ **Very well...”** Dormin boomed, sounding pleased. **“Raise thy sword by the light... and go to the place where the sword's light gathers... There, thou shalt find the Colossus thou art to defeat.”**

 

Unsheathing his sword once again, Wander walked out onto a balcony that overlooked the southern plains of the Forbidden Lands. The fury in his eyes blazed hotter than it ever had. He held up the Ancient Sword, the flat of the blade catching the mid-afternoon sun, the light beam pointing directly to the southern cliffs some distance away. _I'll bring you back, Mono,_ he thought. _I'll slay every one of those foul beasts, and we'll be together again. I promise._

 

And so what would become a genocide began.


	2. The Minotaur

**In The Shadow of the Beasts Redux**

 

By: Rylek196

 

The First: The Minotaur, Valus

 

After the Ancient Sword's light beam had pinpointed his destination, Wander let his arm fall to his side, and examined the landscape. Aside from some rocky hills and a large tree, there was nothing of note he could see in the southern plains.

 

He walked back inside the Shrine, giving Mono's corpse one last longing glance. At least, after her sacrifice, a spell had been placed on her body, so it would never rot, never be tarnished by the elements. However, to Wander, this was just a painful reminder of how gorgeous she was in life, and how he would never hold her in his arms again.

 

He shook his head to clear those thoughts. No, he _would_ see her again, alive, after he had slain the Colossi. There were two exits to the Shrine of Worship, one short downward-leading stairway to the left, and its twin to the right.

 

He walked over to Agro, and mounted her, kicking her sides to get her to move. As he rode her down the right stairway, Wander wasn't sure what to make of the horse, even though it had been a week since he left his village. She seemed loyal enough, even to a complete stranger, if a bit skittish, but hopefully he could get that trait out of her with time.

 

The journey across the grassy plains was nothing all that noteworthy, but it allowed Wander to better take in the land. In every direction but north, were high, rocky walls. He passed the tree, holding up his sword again to reaffirm his destination. The beam still pointed the same direction it had been for the past eight minutes, towards the southern cliffs.

 

After another three minutes of riding, he arrived where the sword's beam was pointing. It was a gap between the rock walls. Oddly, there were stairs leading up to the gap, and he could see more things that were obviously man-made in the cliff walls leading upwards. Wander was intrigued, to say the least. While it was obvious the massive bridge was created using magic of some kind, these structural remnants seemed like people actually could have built. _So apparently people did live in these lands at one point,_ he thought. _The question is, why did they leave?_

 

He decided not to dwell on that- he was here on a mission, and that mission did not involve puzzling out the mysteries of this land. To his right he saw a wall, about seventeen feet tall, with thick moss growing on it. He dismounted Agro, and walked over to it, grabbing ahold of the moss and testing its strength. He climbed about five feet up before determining it would hold, then dropped to the ground, and went back over to Agro.

 

From a holster on the side of her saddle, he grabbed his bow and quiver of arrows, strapping both to his back. Walking back over to the moss wall, he once again began climbing it, this time getting to the top of the wall. From there, he turned left, walking along a rough path cut into the cliffside. He jumped over a small gap in the path, then pulled himself up onto a higher ledge. There was another gap in the path, but this one had long been covered up by wooden boards that creaked under his weight as he made his way across. Another gap marred his way, but this one was small and he just stepped over it. The next thing in front of him was a fallen pillar, which he hurdled over, then pulled himself up onto yet another two ledges.

 

From there, things got a bit more complicated, but it was still nothing he had not taught himself to do, and therefore nothing he could not handle. He grabbed onto a small outlying ledge of a pillar, shimmying around it. He pushed off the pillar with his legs, giving him more propulsion to grab onto the other side of the path.

 

Now all that remained was a short walk upwards into an open canyon-like area and- _**BOOM.**_

 

Wander froze at that. _That couldn't be... could it?_ he thought.

 

He took a few more tentative steps up the path, and another _**BOOM**_ sounded. Suddenly, an enormous, hoofed foot slammed down, causing the nearby dead trees to quiver. “Oh my God...” Wander breathed as another hoofed foot crashed down, followed by an equally huge hand swinging by. The Colossus's entire body came into view soon after, and to say Wander was stunned would be an understatement.

 

The Colossus was larger than any living creature Wander had ever seen. Few words could describe the sheer massive form of the monster, its bulk alone probably making it weigh several dozen tons. It slowly lumbered along on its strange back-jointed legs. As his brain started getting over the initial shock, he began to analyze the hulking beast.

 

The Colossus was roughly humanoid, with extremely lanky arms that trailed down to its ankles, and were thicker than huge tree trunks. No doubt the monster also possessed titanic strength in addition to just being massive. Wander could not see its front, facing the creature's back as he was, but he could see what looked like platforms on the beast's back; a larger one on its tailbone, and two more near its lats. In one hand, Wander noted with a gulp, the mammoth beast carried a stone club the size of a tree.

 

A few birds of prey flew around the monster's head, but none dared to perch on it. Wander took a few steps out of his hiding place. By now, the Colossus was a fair ways away from him, so there was no chance of being seen and subsequently smashed into a bloody paste.

 

All of a sudden, so suddenly it made Wander almost yelp in surprise, Dormin's voice sounded in his head. _**“Hold up thy sword to reflect light onto the Colossus. Its vitals shall be revealed...”**_

 

With a shaky arm, Wander did just that, holding up the Ancient Sword so that the flat of the blade caught the sun's rays. The beam of light appeared, its blue radiance shining onto the Colossus... which promptly stopped, and began to turn around. Just before it did, however, the light beam revealed a glowing red spot on the monster's left calf.

 

The beast let out a low, rumbling growl, the beast started lumbering towards Wander. He tightened his grip on his sword's hilt. Now he could see the beast's front. It had glowing blue eyes, a stone 'face' that consisted of a bulbous nose, and what looked like two places where horns had once been, but had long since broken off. Its chest was covered in fur, and it stomped almost curiously towards Wander, like it didn't know what to make of him.

Thinking using the light beam to try and blind the beast temporarily was a good idea, Wander held up his blade, trying to shine its radiance into its eyes. The beast didn't seem to be affected by this at all, continuing its earth-trembling walk towards the tiny human. However, it _did_ reveal something else: A giant blue symbol on the creature's head. “What the hell..?” Wander asked aloud, his arm falling to his side. That symbol- that Sigil- must have been another of the creature's weak points, its 'vitals' as Dormin had put it.

 

However, highlighting the strange Sigil sparked a noticeable change in the Colossus's behavior. It stopped dead in its tracks, its eyes turning a reddish-orange shade. After this brief pause, it started forward again, this time with a much more menacing gait. The implication was clear: It now saw Wander as an enemy, a threat to its survival, and was now moving to crush the human into the dust.

 

Wander gripped the hilt of the Ancient Sword tightly, and ran towards the massive beast. It was the world's strangest game of Chicken, and one would have to relent sooner or later. Unfortunately for Wander, it was the Colossus. The monster stopped, reared back, and took a big step forward, bringing its club down.

 

“Oh, _shiiit!!”_ Wander screamed as the club descended, dive-rolling out of the way. The massive weapon landed not ten feet away, the shockwave shaking the ground and the sound of the impact causing his ears to ring. He shook his head to clear it. _Need to go for that thing's leg, NOW!_ hethought.

 

He ran around to the creature's backside, seeing that the monster's left calf- where the glowing spot had been- was covered in thick fur. Fur that looked like- “Moss,” Wander breathed in realization, an evil smile spreading across his face. If he could climb the moss, maybe the fur could provide a handhold, too.

 

The Colossus was not taking all this sitting down, however. It raised its foot, stomping it down, forcing Wander to dodge, but the tremor still knocked him off his feet. Wander quickly scrambled to his feet, making a beeline for the creature's furry calf. He jumped onto it, grabbing a hold of the matted, grassy fur. The glowing red mark showed itself again, but now that he was up close, Wander could see that the red was really just an outline around a glowing teal crack. The Colossus shook its leg to try and dislodge the tiny human, but Wander held steadfast, in spite of all the flailing.

 

“Raah!” With a cry of anger, Wander stabbed the full length of the Ancient Sword's blade into the monster's calf, causing it to let out a throaty groan of pain, and keel over, taking a knee. The Colossus used its fists to keep itself from falling completely on its face, but as it was, Wander could now reach small ledges on the creature's thighs by jumping.

 

Doing just that, he grabbed hold of the first ledge, and from there, propelled himself upwards, grabbing the beast's furry rear end (luckily it didn't look anything like a human bottom- Wander wasn't sure he could take that image if it did) and managed to grip onto the lowest platform on the Colossus's back. He pulled himself up onto it, heart pounding more from adrenaline than exertion. By now, the Colossus had long since gotten to its feet, beginning to walk again. Wander looked down at the ground. He was now a good thirty feet in the air. If he fell off the beast now, it would mean a broken ankle at the least.

 

The Colossus seemed determined to make him fall off, though. It shook side to side, Wander losing his footing and falling hard onto his back. Growling, he pushed himself to his feet, wanting now more than ever to just kill this thing. The beast's back was covered in fur, so he was able to skip the next two platforms entirely on his climb up the Colossus's hunched back.

 

At last reaching the Sigil atop the monster's head furry head, he tightly grabbed a fistful of it, pulled his arm back, and plunged the Ancient Sword down into the glowing mark with a roar. Pulling the blade out, he was immediately sprayed in the face by a geyser of sticky black liquid that could only be the creature's blood. Wander spat hard, getting some of the disgusting liquid he accidentally ingested out of his mouth. The blood tasted like oil, and left his clothes soaked and sticking to his skin. He used his free hand to wipe the substance off his face.

 

The Colossus roared in pain, and Wander was nearly flung off as it threw its head back. He screamed in pain as his wrists were turned to the limit. Shaking his head, he stabbed down again, once more getting covered in black, sticky blood. The Colossus gave another roar, this time shaking side to side, Wander being tossed around atop its head like a ragdoll, but he refused to let go.

 

“Come on, you bastard, _die!”_ Wander yelled, ramming his blade into the Sigil again. The birds of prey flying around the Colossus screeched, but the enraged young man paid them no mind whatsoever. He was going to kill this beast, no matter what. He brought his blade down again, jabbing it into the monster's head. Another spray of black blood soaked. The black substance's stickiness had an interesting side-effect, he was noticing as the Colossus threw its head back again. His hand was practically stuck to the fur, entangled in matted, blood-covered knots, making it much harder for the beast to buck him off.

 

Wander stabbed the Colossus again. _This_ was exhilarating. _This_ was a thrill. It was the ultimate hunt- the greatest battle of man versus beast ever seen. No matter how many deer he had shot, and rabbits he had skinned, none would compare to this kill. Overcome by a sudden burst of blood-crazed adrenaline, Wander ripped his hand out of the creature's fur, stood up, and jumped, driving his blade down into the monster's skull up to the hilt as he descended.

 

The Colossus gave one last pained roar, beginning its final seventy-foot fall to the earth. Wander hung on for dear life as its head crashed to the ground. Breathing heavily, he slid off, yanking his blade out of the mammoth skull.

 

Shaking his head to try and get the black blood out of his hair, Wander turned back to the giant corpse.

 

“Well, I guess the saying is true,” he sneered. “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” He sheathed his sword, but then saw something odd happening to the body. Blackness was starting to cover it, smothering the Colossus like a shroud. Then, a horde of what could only be described as black tentacles shot out of where the Sigil once was. They hovered in the air, orbiting above Wander, just out of his reach.

 

“What the fuck- _kuuuhh...”_ was all Wander could say before the tentacles raced downward, stabbing into his chest. A feeling of numbness instantly spread over his entire body, a black vapor spewing out of his mouth. He fell to his knees, then collapsed, but he didn't feel any of it. The last thing he saw before unconsciousness claimed him was a bright, spiraling light...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Yes, in this story the Colossi blood will be sticky. It has an oil-like consistency right when it sprays out, but it immediately gains the stickiness of something that I can only describe as foul-tasting maple syrup. (It's not unlike the myth of how blood is blue in our bodies, and only turns red upon contact with air). I came up with this 'sticky Colossi blood' idea just outta the blue, thought it was an interesting concept, and just ran with it...


	3. The Great Bull

**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

 

**By: Rylek196**

 

The Second: Taurus Major, Quadratus

 

One of the shadowy humanoid beings that had greeted Wander upon his entrance into the Shrine of Worship looked down at his unconscious form as he lay on the stone floor. Slowly, the being sunk into the floor without a sound, disappearing fully just as the young man awoke. Shaking his head groggily, he pushed himself to his feet, looking around.

 

“How... how did I get back here?” he asked no one. He decided not to question it, though, as it just made it more convenient for him to not have to trek back to the Shrine every time he killed a Colossus. Whether Dormin was doing it or some other force really didn't make a difference, nor did he care.

 

He walked eagerly toward the stone altar where Mono's body lay, sheathing his sword as he walked up the stairs. He looked down at her face, half-expecting her eyes to open at any moment and then smile at him... but nothing happened. Her face remained blank, pale, and expressionless, her eyes still closed.

 

Suddenly, there was a rumbling that shook the Shrine of Worship, like an angry god had grabbed the structure and was jostling it around. Wander turned around, preparing to take cover- what it an earthquake, he thought?- and saw the Idol of the first Colossus glowing a bright white. Suddenly, the statue exploded, crumbling to the ground. Where once there was a giant, ornate carving, there now was a pile of dust and rubble.

 

Wander's gaze hardened at the sight, his eyebrows furrowing. “Good riddance,” he said coldly.

 

The thunder-like rumbling sound was heard not ten seconds later, indicating Dormin's presence. **“Ah, so thou hast survived... We are most pleased at thou...”**

 

“Yes, I have survived,” Wander said. “Now tell where I can find the next of these... _creatures,_ I want to kill as many as I can before I lose the sunlight.”

 

“ **An eager mortal, we see...” Dormin said. “Very well... Thy next foe is in the seaside cave.... It moves slowly... Raise thy courage to defeat it...”**

 

So saying, Dormin's voice faded, leaving Wander to puzzle out his next clue. He walked past where Mono lay, giving her one last longing gaze, then went out onto the balcony overlooking the southern cliffs of the Forbidden Lands. He held up his sword to the evening sun, but the beam did not appear. Instead, a scattered collection of eight smaller blue beams were reflected off the blade, pointing in no particular direction.

 

“What the hell..?” Wander muttered, giving the flat of the blade a smack with his palm. “Show me where I have to go, dammit! Stupid sword...” This was certainly new. He _did_ know what happened when the sword was held up in dim light- a weak, sputtering pinprick of light that was a distinctly piss-coloured yellow appeared- but he didn't know what happened when the sword was held up in sunlight, but not in the right direction.

 

He turned west, holding up the blade, only to get the same result. Growling and feeling like an idiot, he tried every direction that a compass had marked on it, and at last, north yielded success. The beam of light surged forward, pointing into the Shrine's main hall.

 

Wander's brows furrowed. _So, I have to find the direction that the Colossus is in, hmm?_ he thought.

 

He then put two fingers in his mouth, and whistled. “Agro!” he yelled. In no time, he heard the sound of hooves on stone, obviously being Agro running up the steps into the Shrine. He walked down to her, past Mono. He mounted her, giving her a light but firm kick in the sides. “Let's go, Agro,” he said. “The sunlight won't last forever. We'd best get going.”

 

Agro trotted down the steps into the Forbidden Lands' southern plains, out of the Shrine. What Wander didn't see, however, was that a single, pure white dove flew into the building, landing near the altar where Mono lay.

 

Instead of going straight south this time, Wander steered Agro west, around the side of the Shrine. Soon, he was about parallel to the massive white bridge, and not far away, he could see the fairly well-preserved remains of a stone archway, standing sentinel-like before a natural land bridge spanning a chasm. He held up his sword to reaffirm he was going the right way- indeed, he was- so he made his way to the land bridge. There was another land bridge going out to the west nearby, but he ignored it, taking the north land bridge. Perhaps he would take the west land bridge at some other point, later on.

 

While crossing the north land bridge, he looked east. He was now directly parallel to the white bridge, whose tresses at this section of land were held up by massive pillars, built in the sand of a seaside cove, his apparent destination, the dwelling place of the next Colossus.

 

The land bridge ended at a fork in the path. One led down to the cove, the other, farther north, into a vast desert. It was a no-brainer which path to take. Wander kept Agro on her current course, guiding her down the gently sloping path down to the sandy cove. The cove was really nothing special, just a wide, open beach area that tapered off into water. Wander made his way under the massive pillars holding up the bridge tresses, towards a huge stone door he could see not far off, built into the rock wall.

 

As he got within fifty feet of the stone door, a noise like a huge battering ram was heard, shaking the door. _That's probably it,_ Wander thought, his heart beginning to pound in his chest. He didn't dare get any closer.

 

Another huge BOOM was heard, and cracks appeared in the door. “Come on you bastard, come on, I know you're there, get out here...” Wander muttered angrily.

 

For a second, there were no more sounds. Then without warning, with a monumental CRASH, the Colossus rammed right through the door, revealing itself to the world for the first time in who knew how how many ages.

 

The beast this time was a monolithic quadruped, like a cow or bull, a great mass of fur and stone. There were outcroppings of rock that resembled mushrooms on each of its shoulders, and it only had one horn, the other having long since broken off. Its face resembled that of a locomotive, its back covered in spiny rock ridges that looked like exposed vertebrae. It almost appeared pensive as it lumbered farther out of the cave at a pace that could only be described as glacial.

 

Wander, however, did not care how the beast's mannerisms appeared. A feral smile crawled across his face. _This is going to be just like slaughtering an animal._

 

He stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled, getting the monster's attention. The Colossus turned its head towards him, its blue eyes turning the same menacing reddish-orange shade the first one's had. It slowly began to stomp towards him. Wander kicked Agro in the sides gently, in order to get her moving, but the horse seemed petrified in fear, not moving a muscle.

 

Wander kicked her again as the Colossus neared. “Come on, Agro, let's get going...” he said in agitation. Again, though, Agro did not move. By now, the Colossus was getting near, shaking the ground and kicking up sand with each footstep.

 

Now out of patience, Wander kicked Agro in the sides fiercely, shouting, “Agro! _Move!_ You worthless, stupid, piece of shit horse..!” Deciding he could waste no more time lest he get squashed, he dismounted her. “Fine! You want to stay here and die, that's fine by me!”

 

He ran as fast as he could from the huge bull-creature, looking over his shoulder as it slowly reared up onto its hind legs, getting ready to slam its immense weight down to crush anything in its way. On the bottom of its hooves, though, was something interesting. They literally... _glowed,_ not unlike some bio-luminescent creatures. Agro let out a terrified whinny and ran for her life as she finally realized the danger she was in.

 

“Oh, so _now_ you fucking move...” Wander muttered under his breath as he ran. The beast then let itself fall, the titanic girth of the creature slamming down in an earth-shaking CRASH, throwing up a huge cloud of sand.

 

Just then, Dormin's guttural voice was heard in Wander's mind. **“The place that emits light is its vitals... Use thy bow...”**

 

 _What, the bottom of its hooves?_ Wander thought. At first he thought that was ridiculous... but then he stopped running and took a closer look. The fur on the beast's legs didn't extend all the way down to its feet. It was higher up, and far too high to jump to. The only way to get to the fur was to make the creature bend down, and the best way to do that... _Is to jab it with something sharp,_ Wander smirked.

 

He sheathed his sword, taking his bow off his back and undoing the string that held his quiver top in place. He had sixty arrows, and while he couldn't exactly afford to go hog-wild with firing them off, he could afford to miss a few shots here and there. Still, there was no way to get more, so if he ran out, he was done. Steeling himself, he ran for the monster. “I can't believe this is the second time I'm doing something like this,” he mumbled to himself. He stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled, getting the monster's attention. It turned to face him, and began walking in his direction.

 

Once the beast was almost on top of him, he stopped running, taking his thumb ring off his belt and slipping it onto the digit. He ripped an arrow out of his quiver, nocking the arrow to his bow. The Colossus began rearing up on its hind legs at an agonizingly slow pace. Once the bottom of its front hooves were showing, Wander let fly the arrow, the sharp tip striking home in the beast's right foot. It let out a wail in pain, crouching down on one side.

 

“Yes!” Wander cried. He ran around the front of the creature, putting away his bow, closing his quiver, and pulled out his sword. He jumped for the fur, and managed to grab a firm hold. However, given how the beast was nearly a hundred feet tall, it would be quite a climb to its back. Making matters worse, the Colossus seemed to feel what it viewed as a tiny insect grabbing hold of its fur, so it shook its foot, dislodging the arrow, and again rose to its full height. This had the side-effect of making it much easier for Wander to get to one of the mushroom-like platforms on its shoulder, and he pulled himself up onto it to get a bit of a breather, all the while keeping a wide base to avoid tumbling off to his doom as the creature began to walk forward again.

 

Once he was ready, he prepared himself to continue, but realized there was a problem. Just above where he was on the creature, was its rocky skin, devoid of fur. _No way can I jump directly onto its back from here,_ Wander thought. Luckily, there was a stripe of fur that looked like it led all the way to the creature's back. Wander grabbed hold of the mossy substance, and began shimmying his body sideways along the Colossus's side.

 

Oddly, the beast didn't thrash or shake too much during Wander's entire climb over its side, which he considered a very good thing after being tossed around like a rag doll on the first Colossus. All of a sudden, though, he remembered something. _I forgot to check where the Sigil was! FUCK!_ Cursing a blue streak under his breath, he kept climbing left, toward the beast's back.

 

Once he got to it, though, the Sigil immediately revealed itself. Genuinely surprised, Wander just smirked. “Never mind.”

 

He grabbed hold of the beast's fur with one hand, and rammed his sword into the beast's flesh. It roared in pain, and as Wander yanked the blade free, a geyser of the sticky black blood sprayed out. Knowing what to expect this time, he kept his mouth firmly closed, but was still soaked in the liquid.

 

The blood instantly congealed the fur into knotted lumps, making it much easier for Wander to hold on as the Colossus thrashed back and forth, but he was still flung left and right in time with the creature's motions. Once it stopped, Wander plunged his blade into the Sigil again, enduring another spray of blood, seeing the glowing mark disappear. Wander was stunned.

 

“Wait, that's it?” he said. “Then why is this fucking bastard still breathing!?”

 

Just then, he was nearly flung off by the monster shaking around more furiously than before. “Whoa!” Wander yelled, just barely grabbing hold of its fur and waiting for it to settle. “Don't tell me it has another Sigil, please, don't fucking tell me that...” he muttered. He held his blade up to the day's dying sunlight, and sure enough, when he pointed the sword toward the head of the beast, the beam appeared again. “Goddammit.”

 

And so, he had no choice but to climb over the spiny ridges on the creature's back. As the Colossus gyrated its body side to side in a desperate effort to fling Wander off, he hurdled over the visible vertebrae, eventually making his way to its head.

 

The beast threw its head from side to side, trying to dislodge the human and avoid the death it knew was coming, but Wander held fast, stabbing the Ancient Sword into its skull. It roared in pain as the black blood spewed out of its cranium, drenching the young man on its head and causing the fur to mat and clump. With one last stab, it was over. The light in the beast's eyes faded, and it fell sideways, shaking the ground when its corpse hit the sand.

 

Wander peeled himself off the creature's body as the black veil began to cover it. He prepared himself for the inky black tentacles, and they wasted no time in stabbing into him. Wander fell unconscious with a twisted smile on his face. The bright, spiraling light was again there to greet him in the blackness.


	4. Memories and a Monster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Okay, and here we get into the first of the flashbacks. Thanks to Ao3 stupidly not allowing users to make profiles longer than 2000 characters, I have no choice but to leave a link on there to my FFN profile where the historical notes are. And if you think you can get away with skipping them... nuh-uh. Those notes pretty much required reading if you want these flashbacks to make any damn sense, especially since I get things wrong (mostly intentionally) for the sake of the plot. The notes keep track of inaccuracies (gotta preserve integrity, right?), general things I've dug up that are interesting, and a bit of my thought process on why I made the changes to things that I did. I should also point out that none of this info was easy to find. The research was a frustrating chore, and it almost felt like the internet was outright fighting me to prevent me from finding what I needed, and only made my rather dim view on the reliability of internet search engines even dimmer.

**In The Shadow of the Beasts Redux**

 

**By: Rylek196**

 

The Third: Earth Knight, Gaius

 

By the time Wander's unconscious body had reached the Shrine of Worship, it was nighttime. The two humanoid shadow creatures that looked down at him would have been nearly invisible in the gloom, had Dormin's light not still been shining down. It created a very strange dissonance, with an almost perfect circle of heavenly light to drive away the creeping shadows of night.

 

However, the light given off by Dormin was soon joined by a much greater, but much briefer radiance: that of the Idol of the second Colossus glowing. The shadow beings quickly sunk into the floor as it exploded, the loud sound startling Wander awake. “Waah!” he yelped, quickly shooting to his feet. Breathing heavily, and with his toned muscles sore from two arduous, back-to-back battles, he sat down, calling for Agro. Her hoofbeats were heard a few seconds later, and she ran into the Shrine, coming to a stop in front of Wander.

 

“Well, at least you're reliable at coming when called,” Wander said with a hint of irritation in his voice. He removed her tack and placed it on the floor with a grunt, then removed his gear as well. “I think it's time we both got some rest. Lay down. You're my pillow until this is over.”

 

Agro snorted, obeying her master's command. Wander sat with his back to her, getting as comfortable as possible before closing his eyes. As sleep began to take his mind away, he remembered how he first met Mono, on that fateful day. They were both only about fifteen years old...

 

The rabbit that had recently been caught in one of Wander's improvised traps squealed as he plunged his knife into its flesh. Wander just chuckled evilly, beginning to skin it. The poor animal kept screaming in fear and pain, its blood getting all over Wander's clothes. He took some form of sick pleasure from this, and felt no remorse. People had to eat to live, after all. Any life-forms lower than humans with meat on their bones just served that purpose.

 

However, Wander was not the only human in this forest. Behind him, the bushes rustled, and there was the sudden pitter-patter sound of feet. Wander's head jerked up. He dropped the rabbit to the ground, the thing wheezing for breath and just barely alive.

 

“Who's there?” Wander called. His eyes darted around the small clearing, and he switched the bloodied knife in his hand to a backhand grip, holding it in front of him threateningly. “Show yourself! If you don't, I'll drag you out, and you don't want that.”

 

The bushes rustled more, and a humanoid form took shape in them. Wander frowned, tightening his grip on the knife's hilt, ready to pounce. All at once, however, the foliage parted, pushed aside by a pair of arms covered by white sleeves. The person they belonged to emerged not a second later, taking Wander slightly by surprise.

 

...It was a girl. Wander relaxed a bit, but still held his knife in a defensive position. The girl just stared at him, seeming to appraise him with her light blue eyes. He stared back with his own green-gray ones, doing the exact same thing.

 

She was pretty, that was for sure. She wore a rather elegant, yet plain, white dress, definitely unfit for a forest, and its whiteness stood in stark contrast to Wander's bloodstained shirt. Still, he could appreciate the way it clung to her body, flattering her developing curves. Her hair was brown and trailed down her back, stopping just above her rear end. Suddenly, the girl's eyes widened, noticing the dying, bloody rabbit behind Wander, and she opened her mouth to speak.

 

Her language, it seemed, was not as pretty as she was. “ _What the fuck are you doing!?”_ she shouted, running right past him and pushing him to the side with surprising strength. She knelt down next to the rabbit, blood and dirt staining her dress, comforting it by whispering sweet nothings to it. Soon, the rabbit breathed its last, and while Wander didn't bat an eye at this, but the girl turned her head up to him, her eyes showing nothing but rage. She shot to her feet, getting right up in his face as she yelled, “What the hell was that, you bastard!? You piece of shit!”

 

Wander barely flinched at her outburst. “I was hunting,” he said blandly. “Who the hell are you?”

 

“Don't you fucking _dare_ lie to me, bastard!” the girl growled, ignoring his question. “That wasn't hunting- I've seen hunting! That thing was being skinned alive!”

 

“And so what if it was?” Wander said. “All it is is food. People need to eat to live, after all. What do you think, food just magically rains down from the sky? No, for the good of everyone, some need to die.” He knelt down and picked up the dead rabbit, holding it by the ears. He grinned savagely as he put his knife to its throat. “Just like this.” He then slit the rabbit's throat open, blood streaming out. The girl got a queasy look on her face, then spun around after giving him a gaze of contempt, vanishing into the foliage once more. Satisfied at having gotten rid of that annoyance, Wander went back to skinning his catch. Winter was on its way, and both the meat and fur from this rabbit would be needed in the coming months.

 

The next day, Wander was sitting on his animal pelt bed in his hut, sharpening his hunting knife with a whetstone. This felt-and-wood construction, called a yurt, was a fairly typical home for most who lived in his village, albeit his was far more sparsely furnished than most. Wander lived alone, therefore needing few amenities.

 

There were three rugs on the floor, the most elaborately decorated (though that really wasn't saying much) placed in front of his bed, while the other two lay near the yurt's central support beams, with his woodstove and its metal pipe that stuck out of the roof (which was basically a chimney) in the centre of the room. His extra clothing was placed both in a dresser and in various chests on the floor along the walls. Directly across from him was a pile of neatly folded animal pelts that he intended to sell to traders who occasionally came through. They would then in turn take said pelts to sell for a profit on the Silk Road.

 

Wander was actually far wealthier than his spartan living conditions would suggest thanks to his fur trading, but having little use for the money, he mostly just kept it in a locked chest and rarely looked at it save to count it from time to time. It was just one of those things that became invisible after getting used to it.

 

What did not become invisible, though, was the knife he was currently sharpening. Though the blade really only saw use during the autumn months- the Great Khan had forbidden hunting during animal mating seasons, and Wander had no desire to bring the punishment for breaking that law down on his head- he savoured each kill he made with it. There was something about being a bringer of death that he found immensely satisfying and empowering.

 

Suddenly, the door to the hut opened, and his superior, Naranbaatar, walked in, followed by the girl he had met yesterday in the forest, breaking him out of his rather disturbing train of thought. Naranbaatar was a tall man in his thirties, well-built and fit, with brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He wore a more ornate version of Wander's uniform, befitting his higher rank.

 

Wander sheathed his knife and got to his feet, standing at attention. “What is this about, sir? And why is she here?” he asked, eyeing the girl. She simply stared back with a grumpy look that said she didn't want to be here.

 

“Truthfully? That's _exactly_ what this is about, Wander,” Naranbaatar said. “Mono here told me what you were doing in the forest yesterday. Why, after you've been told time and again not to, do you continue to act in that way when hunting?”

 

 _Mono,_ Wander thought. _Mono._ So that was her name. He realized he had neglected to tell her his name in the forest, so this was her first time hearing his name, too. Pushing that thought to the side for the time being, he answered Naranbaatar. “Sir, with all due respect, you really should know me better by now.”

 

“And perhaps _you_ should be more mature by now, you insolent little child,” Naranbaatar snarled. “Do not test my patience any longer, Wander, or I'll sentence you to so many lashings that your back will be nothing more than shredded strips of flesh by the end!”

 

Even Wander's eyes widened slightly at that, Mono giving a small, almost inaudible gasp. Naranbaatar did not let this advantage go, and pressed it. “Scared now, hmm? Willing to listen to what I have to say?”

 

The boy looked down and to the left, then refocused his gaze on Naranbaatar. “...Yes, sir,” he said. In the past, for his stubbornness and general insolent behavior, his punishment was very difficult extra conditioning, but to the shock of his superiors, he actually seemed to enjoy this to a certain extent.

 

Though he kept the reason for this masochism a secret to all, it was because he knew that by enduring the tough physical workouts, he would get far stronger and therefore better than his fellow recruits. The exhaustion and stiffness in his muscles was a small price to pay, in his book. Lately, however, they had just switched to tying him down and whipping his back five times, which Wander hated, but had endured two sessions of already. It was enough to keep him in check- at least for a while- but this was the first time Naranbaatar had threatened to have him outright killed. Clearly, Mono was here for a reason.

 

“Good,” Naranbaatar growled. “First of all, I should probably explain what Mono was doing out in the forest yesterday. She was there to meet you and make your acquaintance- before she left, that is.” He looked down at the girl by his side. “Which is something she _should not have done,_ by the way.”

 

Mono only scoffed and rolled her eyes, crossing her arms.

 

“Anyway, her job is to... help you with your attitude problems, for lack of a better term,” Naranbaatar continued. “She's training to be a priestess, but like you, she's a bit of a problem child, thanks in no small part to her... vulgarity when she speaks.”

 

Wander could have sworn he heard Mono mutter, “ _I am_ not _a fucking problem child,”_ under her breath. He smirked thinly.

 

“So,” Naranbaatar went on, “The hope is that you two will be able to help each other work through your flaws. Mono, I should not have to remind you that if you refuse this task, you will never become a full-fledged priestess, and Wander, if you do not do what Mono says, not only will you be expelled from the militia, you will be executed. And I'll make sure it's painful. Am I clear?”

 

Both teens nodded begrudgingly.

 

“Good,” Naranbaatar said. “I'll leave you two to get acquainted, then.” He left the yurt, closing the door behind him.

 

A cold silence that lasted a full minute followed as Wander and Mono simply stared at each other. Finally, Wander broke it, another smirk stretching his lips. “Is this all we're going to do each time we meet? Just stare at each other?”

 

Mono narrowed her eyes. “Perhaps. Perhaps not. You're _still_ a bastard, by the way.”

 

“Oh, you're still hung up on that? I do that as annual pastime-”

 

“Oh, yes, because skinning animals alive is _such_ a good pastime...” Mono shot back with biting sarcasm, interrupting him.

 

Wander just rolled his eyes and continued. “-And besides, like I said yesterday, the village needs the meat come winter. You can't tell me you haven't felt the chill in the air lately.”

 

“Given how I always wear dresses with long sleeves, no, I haven't. I'm kept fairly warm all year long,” Mono answered, walking towards Wander's bed. “Anyway, this babble is all meaningless. I think we'd best start getting to know each other. Since when did you start killing animals like you do?”

 

Wander gave a dismissive shrug, moving to stand beside her. “I forget. And even though I'm fairly sure that wasn't an empty threat Naranbaatar made, I think I can get away with doing _this_ just once...”

 

Without warning, Wander's hand whipped forward, smacking Mono on the backside. She shrieked, both in surprise and at the unwelcome stinging pain the left cheek of her derriere. Quickly, she dropped to one knee, grabbed Wander's discarded knife off the bed, and in one smooth motion, unsheathed it and stabbed directly upward at Wander's crotch. The boy just barely moved to the right in time, avoiding his testicles getting turned into shish-kebab. Mono did not stop there, however, and before Wander knew it, she had the blade pressed against his throat, in a prime position to slash it.

 

“You do that... _ever again..._ ” Mono threatened, “And _I'll_ be the one killing you! Fuck what Naranbaatar would do, I'd make it ten fucking times worse! I don't care what it would do to my chances of becoming a priestess! It would be worth the satisfaction of watching you die! I'm trying to _help you,_ you son of a bitch! So the least you could do, is show me some fucking _respect!”_

 

Keeping the knife pointed toward Wander in a backhand grip, she walked to the door, opening it and stopping in the frame. Now follow me. I think a walk would do us some good.” She then threw the knife at the ground where it buried itself point-first with a dull _thud._ She then stormed out of the hut.

 

Wander sighed, partly in relief, partly in exasperation. He had a feeling this was going to be excruciatingly annoying, but at least, from the brief touch he had gotten of it, her bottom did seem to be the right mix of soft and pliable, yet firm and toned. He pulled his knife from the ground, giving it a quick once-over to inspect for damage (it was a very cheap knife, and while Wander could easily afford another one, he was too lazy to do so), then sheathed it and put it on his belt, following Mono.

 

Meanwhile, Naranbaatar walked through the village at a relatively brisk pace. He wasn't in a huge hurry, but Lord Emon did not to be kept waiting any longer than necessary. The village he lived in was a fairly small one, all things considered, but it was well-stocked with needed amenities. Most of the huts were arranged in a roughly circular formation around a larger temple-like building constructed out of wood. That was his destination. To the north were targets set up for archery, as well as a few more yurts. The conflict with another empire to the west had left the village with few actual troops, putting extra pressure on the militia for defense. About an hour's ride by horse to the west was a sprawling area of forest. To the south, about a week's ride away, was an intimidating mountain range, though going there was forbidden on Emon's orders.

 

The hunt this season had been good, and the village would be well-prepared for winter. Arriving at the temple, Naranbaatar ascended a flight of stairs to Emon's quarters. He knocked on the door, and a muffled voice told him to enter, so he did.

 

Lord Emon was a rather unassuming-looking man in his early forties, not particularly tall, but not short, either. He wore long, hooded blue robes with a very elaborately woven tabard that almost reached down to his ankles, with red adorning the sleeves. His face was peppered with graying stubble, and he had a head of short, gray hair.

 

“Ah, Naranbaatar! I take it you fulfilled your task?” he asked as he rose from his sitting position on the floor.

 

“Yes, My Lord,” Naranbaatar said, nodding. “But they don't seem to be taking too great a liking to each other. I do not doubt you... but are you sure this is going to work? Will they actually help each other to overcome their flaws?”

 

“I have faith that they will, yes,” Emon replied. “When Mono came here, I saw immense potential in her as a priestess. Though she proved... rough around the edges, I think trying to calm your troublesome recruit will do her some good.”

 

Naranbaatar's eyes looked down and to the left for a second before he spoke again. “And if they end up, say, falling for each other?”

 

“All the better,” Emon smiled. “After all, there is no more powerful motivator for change in someone than love. Don't worry, my old friend. Everything will work out. You will see.”

 

“So... what is it exactly you do?” Mono asked Wander as he let loose another arrow, striking the bulls-eye for the third time in a row. “I mean, I know you're a militiaman, but what does that entail?”

 

The 'walk' Mono had dragged Wander along on had led them to the archery training grounds, where several wooden targets were set up at varying distances for people to shoot at and hone their skills. Wander had immediately strolled in that direction, and with no weapon to threaten him with this time, Mono had been forced to follow him.

 

Wander nocked another arrow to his bow, using the ring on his thumb to pull back the string. “Well, we train hard in case we need to defend the village from outside attack, but more likely now, we'd be called to attack that western empire, though so far that hasn't happened yet. Kind of pisses me off, if I'm being honest.” He let the arrow fly, hitting the bulls-eye yet again. Mono raised her eyebrows when she looked at the target. His grouping was impeccable. This did not escape Wander's notice. “Impressed?” he smirked, putting his next arrow to bow. _“That_ is exactly why I said I could get away with what I did. They know I'd be picking enemy soldiers off left and right if I was ever sent into battle.” He let go of the string, and even though he was running out of room on the bulls-eye, he still managed to hit it.

 

“Oh, yes, since Naranbaatar sounded _so_ insincere about having you whipped until you died,” Mono said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “I could just tell him you what you did, and I'll bet he would not be pleased. But still, how long have you been training to do that?”

 

“Why are you asking so many damn questions?” Wander said, aiming his last shot on the bulls-eye. After this, he would start going for the other rings on the target.   
  
“Well, if I want to help you, I have to get to know you, much as it pains me to do that,” Mono replied. “So do me a favour and answer the fucking question.”

 

Launching the arrow and predictably hitting the bulls-eye, Wander shrugged. “Since I was about nine, I think. My father taught me how to shoot- it was one of the few things he actually bothered to teach me. I was just kind of good from the start. I remember I hit the bulls-eye with the first shot I ever took.”

 

“Wait- back up,” Mono said. She had the feeling she was about to get somewhere. “What do you mean archery was one of the only things your father taught you?”

 

Wander lined up yet another shot, this time aiming for the second-most inner ring, firing and hitting it precisely. “I mean my parents just... ignored me most of the time. They weren't really... abusive, I guess you'd say. I got more scars from whipping than I did from them, that's for sure, but they never seemed to care whether I was around or not. They up and left one day when I was twelve, and I never heard from them again. I don't know if they're still alive, and to be honest, it makes no difference to me.” He looked at her for the first time since picking up the bow. “But enough about me. Trust goes both ways, doesn't it? So why don't you tell me a bit about yourself? What were your parents like?”

 

Mono's neutral expression throughout his explanation suddenly turned dark. “We don't need to discuss that.” she almost growled.

 

Wander just smirked. “Oh, so you've got some bad blood with them, hmm? I'm not stupid, Mono. How bad were they?”

 

“I said, _we are not talking about that,_ ” Mono repeated, narrowing her eyes. “I think that's been enough for today. I'll visit you tomorrow, so don't make any plans.”

 

With that, she began to walk away. Wander didn't bother following her- what was the point? He was in no rush to change. Still, he furrowed his brows. She was hiding something, that much was obvious. He then shrugged and continued his archery practice, going until he had exhausted the quiver of arrows.

 

The warm light of the morning sun hitting his face in the Forbidden Lands roused Wander from his sleep. That was something he hadn't noticed until now- Dormin's light gave off no heat, bright as it was. He stood up, wincing as his muscles complained from his strenuous activity the day before. Toned and strong as they were, fighting two giant monsters in a row was still more than they could take. Dormin at least had the courtesy to stay silent as Wander stretched to loosen himself up.

 

However, as soon as the being apparently felt Wander was done, he spoke. **“Thy next foe is... A giant canopy soars to the heavens... The anger of the sleeping giant shatters the earth...**

 

The guttural voice faded, leaving Wander to puzzle out his next clue. Luckily, finding where to go was easy, as the morning light provided plenty of illumination for the Ancient Sword to feed on and put into the beam. Wander quickly found out he had to go northwest, but his stomach rumbled as soon as he lowered his arm to his side. _That's right,_ he thought as Agro sauntered up to him, _Haven't eaten since I crossed the bridge._ His keen eyes scanned the plain that stretched out in front of him, squinting into the sunlight. Soon, he saw the tree he had passed on his way to the first Colossus. _That seems promising,_ he thought. _Maybe there's some animals living near that tree I can kill._

 

He walked back inside, but noticed there were two white birds pecking around the altar where Mono lay. He gasped, whipping his sword out of his sheath and running towards the scavengers. He swung blindly at the doves, but missed, and they scattered, flying away. “Hopefully that scared them off,” he grumbled. “Piece of shit bottom-feeders.”

 

He turned back to his horse.“Come on, Agro,” he said as he mounted her. “Let's go get some food. Can't have either of us dying of starvation.”

 

The ride to the tree didn't take too long, and soon Wander had dismounted Agro and was staring up at the tree. To his slight dismay, there didn't seem to be any animals lurking about, but there were, dangling from the tree's branches in a manner he swore was meant to taunt him, several huge fruits. They were an orange-yellow colour, looking ripe and filled with juice. Thankfully, thick moss had grown the full height of the tree on one side of it, so Wander used it to climb up. He shook the branches once he was at the top, many of the fruits falling like huge, edible, delicious raindrops. He climbed down again, grabbing a piece of fruit and digging in along with Agro.

 

The fruit was quite tasty, sweet but surprisingly tart as well. Juice ran down Wander's chin and made his fingers sticky as he took another bite. There were five fruits in total that Wander had shaken off the tree, and many more still on the branches. He ate two full fruits down to the core, licking his fingers clean of juice. Agro gobbled down the rest.

 

Their hunger sated, horse and rider took off yet again. Wander held his sword up to the light to remind himself where to go. The beam still pointed northwest, so to get to where he had to go, he had to retrace his steps up to a point. He took the same natural bridge he had crossed last time to get to the second Colossus, but this time, instead of going down the path to the cove, he kept to the left, riding into a larger area of the Forbidden Lands.

 

However, when crossing the land bridge, something caught his eye. At first, it looked like just another rock, but he had a feeling it was far more than that, so he stopped Agro to get a better look. Even from hundreds of feet away, he could make out recognizable shapes in the 'rock', and to his shock, he realized it was the corpse of the second Colossus, now just a mound of earth and stone. _So that must be what happens to a Colossus after it dies,_ he thought. _But... they can't be made of stone, they have fur and blood, like an organic being does. What_ are _these things?_

 

Thoroughly puzzled, he got back on Agro, and rode across the remainder of the bridge. The light beam was leading him toward a few fairly tall rock faces not too far away from the bridge, but Wander wasn't fooled. Knowing there had to be a way through, he turned Agro slightly to the left, and sure enough, saw a darkened path between the rocks. As soon as he entered the path, the shadows killed the sword's light, but at that point, it was unneeded anyway.

 

The path led him on a slight upwards incline for about three minutes, before spilling them out into the shore of a vast lake. This was not what took Wander's breath away, though. Rather, it was the utterly _enormous_ circular platform that rose hundreds of feet out of the lake's surface on a slight tilt. How such a thing was even possible, Wander couldn't begin to fathom. There was also a long, curved walkway supported by tall pillars next to the platform, one that was presumably connected to it.

 

“Well... I guess this is the place,” Wander said, swallowing back a thick lump of saliva. “I don't think now would be a bad time to get water, either.”

 

He dismounted Agro, taking a waterskin out of her saddlebag, and filled it with lake water. Then, dipping his hands into the lake, he took several handfuls and drank them all. When he looked up, he noticed something he hadn't before, reflected in the still water of the lake: Giant pillars made of light, two of them, that shot up into the clouds and twisted them like a frozen tornado. Stranger still, the pillars were in the same places where he had fought the Colossi.

 

 _This just gets stranger and stranger,_ he thought. _First their corpses turn back into earth, and now light pillars shoot up when I kill them. But why? For what purpose?_ He pondered on this for a second, then shook his head, refocusing on the task at hand. Whatever the pillars meant was irrelevant, and didn't matter.

 

Unfortunately, the only way to get to the walkway was to swim to it, and while Wander _did_ know how to swim, he wasn't looking forward to taking a dip in the semi-cold water of the lake. He sighed, stowing the waterskin away.   
  
“Here goes nothing,” he said, double checking that his quiver was closed before walking into the lake and letting it soak his shorts, before fully immersing himself in the water and beginning the long swim to the walkway. The temperature of the water wasn't what he would call unbearable, but he still had a strong desire to get onto dry land as fast as he could.

 

Reaching the walkway with nothing more than a few shivers, he began to run up it, but as he got higher up, he saw the walkway was _not_ connected directly to the platform. Rather, it stopped abruptly, and there was only a single stone block held up by a pillar in front of him. There did appear to be small ledges on the block that he could use as handholds, but overall, only one thing could be said: “ _Fuck.”_

 

Steeling himself, he backed up a good ten feet to get some good momentum, then ran and jumped for the pillar. For a solid three seconds he was suspended in the air as the block grew closer and closer, then gravity took over and he began to fall. For a split second he thought he was going to miss and fall into the lake, but he just managed to grab a hold of the ledge with one hand. He stayed there, hanging literally by his fingers, until he swung his other arm up to get a more solid grip. Taking a moment to steady himself, he then started shimmying along the ledge to the back of the block. He then repeated what he did to get to the first Colossus, pushing off with his legs to get to the lip of the platform.

 

Now on more solid ground, he walked around the edge until he came to a flight of stairs leading up onto the main part of the platform.

 

The first thing he saw there was what seemed to be a giant pile of rubble. Wander was not so naive to believe it _was,_ though. His feelings were confirmed as he drew a bit closer to it, and suddenly a loud, throaty rumbling was heard, and the stone pile began to move, standing up from its prone position on the ground.

 

For the second time that day, Wander's breath was stolen from him as the Colossus rose to its full height of nearly a hundred feet tall. The monster was a lanky, bizarre humanoid, with asymmetrical arms, a furry belly, and fairly short legs that ended, oddly enough, in spherical globes. It had no hands to speak of, with the left arm ending in a ball of fur with stone blocks sticking out of it in a way that resembled very crude fingers, and the right arm ending in a massive stone pillar, almost akin to a sword, if one wanted to look at it that way.

 

Not letting his fear root him in place, nor repeat his mistake from the second Colossus, Wander held up his sword, moving the beam around the creature's body to search for weak points. One was highlighted almost immediately on the beast's belly, and the other was located all the way up on its head. However, like before, revealing these Sigils caused the Colossus's eyes to glow orange, and it began to stomp toward him even more aggressively.

 

Suddenly, the Colossus stopped, beginning to take a step back and moving its sword arm in a way that suggested it was winding up for an attack. Wander's eyes widened. _Oh, shit._ He immediately began to sprint to the left faster than he ever had as the monster dropped its stance to steady itself on its globular feet and raised its weapon far above its head, then brought it down with unimaginable force. The impact made a noise like an explosion, creating a crater in the sandy surface of the platform like one, too.

 

Wander, for his part, was well out of the way of the pillar-sword when it made landfall, but still felt the bone-shaking impact. Adrenaline now coursing through his veins, looked towards the Colossus as it ripped its 'blade' from the ground. Dormin's voice sounded in his head to guide him. _**“The Colossus's sword shall be thy path...”**_ Wander had a pretty good guess as to what that meant. The beast's rectangular sword-pillar made a sort of ramp when slammed into the ground that could be climbed. However, he saw a flaw in this. The Colossus had a stone ring around its right forearm that barred him from going beyond it. However, part of it was black, crumbling, and brittle. To climb the beast, the ring would have to destroyed, somehow, someway.

 

The Colossus was now bearing down on him, so Wander took off running again. This time, he ran towards the monster, trying to think of something on the fly. The Colossus apparently was ready for this, though, as it again dropped its stance as the tiny human approached, angling its sword down in a stabbing motion. Wander just ran faster to avoid being squashed into the dirt. He just barely dodged death by mere metres, but the force of the impact still knocked him off his feet. He scrambled back up, now directly underneath the Colossus. Knowing he needed to get the hell out of what was unquestionably a kill zone, he ran away from the beast as it slowly began to turn around, and saw something unusual.

 

There seemed to be a gray circle of solid stone in the middle of the platform, like an island in a sea of brownish-black soil. The beast at his back, Wander made for this, intrigued. The Colossus attempted another stab attack, but Wander was well out of range, and that only gave him the time to inspect the stone dais. He knelt down and tapped it with his knuckles. As he suspected, it was solid stone. _If I can get that bastard to hit this with his sword, that might be enough to break that ring._ Wander thought.

 

The Colossus was bearing down on him. Seeing an easy kill, it wound up its sword swing again, lowering its stance and raising its arm.

 

 _And... NOW!_ Wander mentally yelled, running with everything he had in the opposite direction as the pillar descended, the air screaming in its wake as it picked up speed...

 

The Colossus realized too late what was about to happen. It tried at the last second to adjust the trajectory of the blade, angle it to the side, maybe tilt it ever so slightly, but its weapon smashed right into the stone circle, and deflected off with enough force to considerably crack it. That damage was nothing compared to the simultaneous damage to its brittle amour, though. Part of the ring around its forearm shattered, as well as half of a spiked stone collar on the back of its neck.

 

Wander sighed in relief, though the battle was far from over. It had swung very much in his favour, though.

 

He managed to bait the Colossus into swinging its sword again, this time to get it to stick into the dirt. He clambered up the sword before the beast was able to yank it from the ground. Beginning to climb the beast's furry right arm, he discovered one happy byproduct (for him, at least) of the Colossus forearm ring breaking in half: The other half could be used as a sort of rest stop, where he could catch his breath in relative safety. He took a short break of about thirty seconds here, then took a leap of faith over to the beast's furry belly. The Colossus had a cracked but sturdy stone ledge all the way around its waist, but Wander grabbed hold of the monster's hip, and began to climb around the front to its belly, where the Sigil awaited.

 

Just as Wander readied his blade to stab the Sigil, it occurred to him just what this creature resembled: A solider, armed with a sword. A soldier, like he never got to be. The thought enraged him, and he stabbed the Colossus in the gut with extra strength and zealous bloodlust. And blood was exactly what he got, as the sticky, inky black substance sprayed out, catching him right in the face, but he paid the gore no mind.

 

The monster shook its body side to side, trying in vain to dislodge him, but Wander just held on and plunged his blade into the creature's belly again, another spray of blood coming out, further gluing him to the beast's stomach. The Colossus then began to walk, and oddly, the small, constant vibrations from its footfalls were actually far more of an impedance to Wander's stabbing progress than the larger movements of the Colossus shaking its whole body. No matter what he did, he just couldn't seem to get a stab in. However, it couldn't keep up its futile Sunday stroll forever, and when it stopped, Wander finally got in the third stab needed to make the Sigil vanish.

 

Now there was only the perilous climb to its head. Wander pried himself loose from where he was stuck on the beast's fur, landing on the ledge around the its waist. From there, he jumped back to the Colossus's forearm band, then began the long climb up its arm.

 

The Colossus, to its credit, was now doing everything in its power to rid itself of the human it now knew beyond a shadow of a doubt was trying to kill it. It swung its arm backwards, shook its body, but still, Wander climbed higher and higher, finally reaching the beast's head. He plunged his blade into the glowing mark atop the monster's skull, and a geyser of black blood spewed out. The Colossus roared in pain, dipping its head and shaking it side to side, causing Wander to flail about, but he regained his position and with one final stab, it was over.

 

Wander clung on for dear life as the Colossus fell to its knees, then face-planted into the dirt, lifeless. For the third time, the black shroud covered the beast's body, and the tentacles pierced him through the chest. Just like the massive creature, Wander fell to his knees, the world going black. The white light was there to greet him in the blackness yet again.


	5. Equus Prime

**In the Shadow of the Beasts Redux**

 

**By: Rylek196**

 

The Fourth, Equus Prime, Phaedra

 

Three shadow humanoids now looked down upon Wander as he lay unconscious under Dormin's light. Behind the strange group, in the Shrine's hall on the left side, the statue of the knight-like Colossus started glowing, then exploded. As if on cue, the humanoid shadow beings sank into the floor when this happened, leaving no trace of their presence as Wander opened his eyes wearily.

 

He groaned as he pushed himself to his feet, his aching muscles complaining with every movement. That battle had been the most grueling thus far, and he was sore, needing without a doubt to stretch and massage his muscles.

 

Dormin, however, did not seem to care for Wander's state of being, merely giving the next hint right away. Wander forced himself to pay attention as the disembodied voice began booming throughout the Shrine.

 

“ **Thy next foe is... In the land of vast green fields... Rows of guiding graves... It is a giant indeed, but fearful, it is not...”**

 

The voice faded, leaving Wander to his thoughts. ' _Rows of guiding graves', hmm?_ _That could be useful. Maybe it's a burial site for whoever built the structures in this land. With any luck, some of the corpses might have supplies I can take. If nothing else, they could have texts with information I could use._

 

Before any of that, though, he needed to get the kinks out of his muscles. Wander spent a good fifteen minutes just stretching, paying particular attention to his arms, as they had taken the brunt of the strain when fighting the third Colossus. He used his thumbs to massage his forearms and wrists, getting the knots out.

 

When he felt he was relatively okay to go on, he walked out onto the balcony that overlooked the Forbidden Land's southern plains, and held his blade up. Luckily for him, he was already facing the direction the light beam pointed to: east. The beam became roughly one singular laser between two tall rock faces, telling him that was were he needed to go.

 

 _Well, that's it, then?_ he thought. _Just east. No strings attached. Well... none except the Colossus._

 

He walked back inside, giving a longing glance at Mono, then mounted Agro and set off. Unknown to him, was that as soon as he was gone, a third dove landed near where Mono lay...

 

The journey to his next opponent was so uneventful it was almost boring; the destination was exceedingly obvious, and within six minutes, he arrived at the break between the rock faces. The gap lead him into a linear corridor of rock that went on longer than he was expecting, as it took a further seven minutes to get through. Small lizards ran amok in this path, racing to get out of the way of Agro's hoofs lest they be crushed by the massive horse as she ran by. _This does seem like a decent place to get meat if I ever need it- and I will,_ Wander thought.

 

Soon, he was out of the corridor, and emerged onto a path overlooking the most picturesque place he had seen in the Forbidden Lands thus far. It was a huge, roughly circular glade carpeted by lush and thick green grass. A massive overhang of rock above his head bathed the path in shade. However, there were no rows of graves that he could see. In fact, there were no graves at all, just a couple mounds of earth placed diagonally to each other.

 

 _Dammit, Dormin,_ Wander mentally growled. _Why the hell did you lie to me? Must you always speak in riddles?_

 

He nonetheless followed the path where it lead- down into the glade. Getting closer, he saw the mounds numbered not two, but four, placed in a cross formation. Stranger still, there were entrances into the mounds that led down below ground. _Could these be catacombs then? Is that what Dormin meant?_

 

He rode Agro slowly, cautiously through the formation of mounds, turning slightly to the west, before he saw it. It looked like a massive statue, but Wander was now far too savvy to think it was. Getting closer, the obvious happened, and the 'statue's' eyes lit up, the Colossus coming to life.

 

To Wander's shock, as the Colossus rose up to its full height of nearly ninety feet tall, he saw it resembled an enormous, somewhat skeletal horse. Its stone 'ribcage' was exposed, it legs tapering to deadly points like spears, and beside its head were two braids of fur and stone. A pang of emotion tugged at Wander's heart. Horses were essential to his people. They used them for transport, battle, and warriors even used them as emergency sources of hydration if the need arose by slitting a minor vein in their neck and drinking the blood. In all his time, he had never seen a horse be slaughtered (though it did happen), but he had kill this one.

 

His green-gray gaze became steely. _It must be done._ However, doing the deed of murder seemed to be an impossibility from his vantage point on the ground, as the Colossus had no visible fur on its legs he could climb, and trying to scale its stony exterior was out of the question.

 

By now the Colossus had taken notice of Wander and Agro, and stomped curiously toward them, its sharp legs stabbing into the dirt. Wander turned Agro around, riding in the other direction. He rode a good distance from the beast, both to buy himself time, and to think of a way to defeat the monster. “Damn... I can't climb it, that much is obvious,” he muttered to himself. “I think trying to scout it out would be good. See what my other options are.”

 

He kicked Agro, but the horse once again refused to move. “Oh, fuck you, again!?” Wander cried. He took an arrow out of his quiver, holding it in front of her eye so she got a good look at it. “I don't want to jab you with this to get you moving, but I will if I have to.” He glanced up as the Colossus stomped forward. It was now about sixty feet away and getting closer every second. “So, do you _really_ want this jabbed into your side, you stupid horse? Or worse yet, do you want to get crushed by that thing?” He pointed to the Colossus. “If not, _move. Now.”_

 

The Colossus was now only thirty feet away. For something so big, it could move surprisingly fast. Wander was just about contemplating jumping off Agro like he did for the second Colossus and just legging it, when Agro finally decided to move. She took off at a brisk pace, but not a full gallop, allowing Wander to place the arrow back in his quiver and take the reins once more.

 

He rode a wide circle around the Colossus, sticking close to the earthen mounds and using them for cover. At the back of the Colossus, he could see a wide stripe of gray fur running along its back, and even better than that, the creature had a short stone 'tail' of sorts that looked quite climbable.

 

“There's my way onto its back,” Wander said aloud to himself. “But how do I get onto up there? It's way too high to jump to.”

 

He kept going for a bit longer until he rode in front one of the entrances to the catacombs that was near some trees on the west side of the glade. _These must play a part somehow,_ he thought. As the Colossus bore down on him, he dismounted Agro and let her run away, then entered into the catacombs, descending down underground.

 

The Colossus's titanic girth stomping around literally right over his head caused a shower of dirt from the ceiling, coating him in dust and making him cough, but he persisted. He shook his head to clear his hair of earth, then kept going. To his surprise, there were no bodies entombed in niches in the tunnel walls- in fact, there were no bodies down here at all! The tunnels were just tunnels and nothing more.

 

 _Strange..._ he thought. He turned a corner in the claustrophobic tunnels, then went up a staircase and emerged out a different mound. He snuck a peek at the Colossus from where he was. It was still stomping around where it _thought_ he was, its girth causing small tremors and kicking up clouds of dirt. However, then something amazing (and very lucky for him) happened. The Colossus actually bent down, looking for Wander in the tunnels. Better still, it lowered its stone tail enough that he could reach it if he jumped for it. Wander smirked. He came out of his hiding place and ran as fast as he dared risk without drawing the monster's attention.

 

Luckily, the creature was too absorbed in looking for the human it didn't realize was right behind it to notice his approach. He jumped up, grabbed its tail, then propelled himself to its fur from there and began to climb. His muscles still gave twinges of pain at the motion, but it was nothing he couldn't handle.

 

The Colossus, though, had by now felt something grab its fur, and turned its head to look over its shoulder. Wander swore the beast's glowing blue eyes widened in terror slightly before it faced the front again and started thrashing its body side to side, tossing Wander to and fro. He cried out as he was shaken around, but just managed to keep his grip on the monster's fur.

 

As a precaution, he kept holding on to its fur as he climbed toward the creature's neck. This precaution would end up saving his life, as the creature suddenly reared up onto its hind legs, making the horizontal surface of its back a vertical one for a second. “Whoa!” Wander yelled as he hung there for a second that seemed like an eternity before gravity took over and the beast crashed back down with a teeth-rattling impact.

 

Realizing he had forgotten to check the beast for Sigils (and mentally kicking himself for it), Wander held up his blade while one hand still gripped in the creature's fur, revealing a glowing blue crack on the back of the Colossus's neck. He got up, running along its back until he reached the neck. Quickly, he plunged the Ancient Sword's blade into into the monster's fur, the beast letting out a high-pitched cry that sounded almost like a flute, then lowered its neck in pain.

 

Wander got to his feet and made his way to the top of the creature's head. The Sigil lit up automatically under the presence of the Ancient Sword. The Colossus shook its head wildly, but Wander held on, a grim look of determination on his face. He stabbed the Colossus in the glowing mark on its head, causing it to give again its flute-like cry of pain. For once, Wander almost did feel bad, but knew it had to be done. The most he could do was put the creature down quickly.

 

The Colossus flung its head side to side as the black, sticky blood shot of outs head like a gusher of oil, coating Wander in it, but he held on despite the dull pain in his muscles. He plunged his blade down again, another spray of blood shooting out and drenching his face and chest. The Colossus flailed around violently, but thanks to the stickiness of the blood, Wander was able to hang on, and plunged his blade down again.

 

He ripped it out before the Colossus could react, and gave the final blow, time seeming to slow down as the blade went in. The Colossus gave one final cry, its back legs giving out as it collapsed onto its side. Wander peeled himself off the head of the beast for the fourth time, covered from head to toe in sticky blood.

 

The black shroud covered the Colossus's corpse, and Wander just gave into the inevitability of the tentacles. They stabbed into his chest, making his entire body go numb and knocking him unconscious. As per usual, he saw the bright, spiraling light in the sea of blackness that greeted him...


	6. Riding the Wind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick note here, all the chapters from this one onward were written using the PS4 remake of Shadow of the Colossus, not the enhanced port that came out on PS3 in the Team Ico Collection in 2011, thereby explaining the minor discrepancies in some details. That is all.

**In the Shadow of the Beasts Redux**

 

By: Rylek196

 

The Fifth: Delta Phoenix, Avion

 

One more humanoid shadow being had joined the rest in looking down upon Wander as he lay unconscious inside Dormin’s circle of light, bringing their total to four. Behind the strange group, along the hall’s west wall, cracks formed in the statue of the great horse Colossus, through which light spilled. The statue exploded seconds later, sending pieces crumbling to the ground. The smokey humanoid shadows had long since sunk into the floor as Wander shook his head and awoke.

 

Seeing Agro walking up the steps to the altar where Mono lay, he walked up beside her, staring down at his deceased lover. He placed his hand on Mono’s stomach. _Eventually, my love,_ he thought. _In time, all the Colossi will be dead, and we’ll be together again._

 

His heartfelt mental declaration was interrupted as Dormin began to speak, causing Agro to stamp her feet and snort in surprise. Wander turned and looked up at the light to receive his clue to his next kill.

 

“ _ **Thy next foe is…”**_ the being began. _**“It casts a colossal shadow across a misty lake as it soars through the sky… To reach it is no easy task…**_

 

The voice faded after that, leaving Wander and Agro alone. As he had done several times before _,_ Wander walked out onto the balcony overlooking the Forbidden Land’s southern plain and held up his sword. The light beam, which appeared when he faced the right direction after a few seconds of turning, pointed northeast. His view of his exact destination was blocked both by the Shrine’s east wall and a rock wall in the distance.

 

 _It’s never easy, is it?_ Wander growled in his mind. Frowning, he walked back inside, leading her by the reins down the stairs out of the Shrine, then mounted her and rode off. He was completely oblivious to the fact that a fourth dove had joined the ones around the altar where he had placed Mono…

 

The ride to where the light beam pointed was uneventful. Wander just took in the sight of the green-yellow grass fly by under Agro’s hooves. To the west were two tall stone pillars that were man-made, but his going over to see why they were there proved pointless. They were just markers for another land bridge, as were an identical set on the far side.

 

He turned Agro around, a bit irritated that his time had been wasted, and kept going in the direction dictated by the light beam. He was led to a wide, grassy ridgeline by the blade, and looking over to the edge, he was greeted with one of the most magnificent sights he had ever seen. Just to the left, far below him, was an enormous shelf of waterfalls, some large and wide, others more slim, all pooling water into the same lake. Even from his position on the ridge kilometers away, the roar of the falls was audible, a cacophony that mixed with the wind.

 

For the first time, Wander realized the Colossi were not the only things that dwarfed him here. The land itself was massive, gaping, cavernous. Its maw more was more than wide enough to swallow him whole, to consume him and tear him to such microscopic pieces that he would never be found. He actually had to shake his head to clear himself of that disturbing train of thought.

 

The ridgeline kept going for some distance, winding, widening, and narrowing, eventually opening up into a fairly wide plain, at the entrance to which was a small shrine. Wander thought it looked like a miniature version of the Shrine of Worship, but rode past it, paying it little mind.

 

A little ways away from that shrine was a gap between two rock walls. The light beam pointed in that direction, so he went there. At the end of a short path was the rocky shoreline of a lake. Structures of stone created by the hands of man that consisted of a wall topped with rusted wrought-iron fencing, as well as four pillars placed at intervals on the wall, caught the eye right away. Just beyond the wall was a tower taller than the pillars. Moss covered all the structures as nature slowly reclaimed what belonged to it.

 

Wander dismounted Agro, and checking to make sure his his effects were attached securely, waded into the water. He started shivering at the temperature, as the area was shaded from the sun, so the water was colder than the lake where he had fought the third Colossus. It was also noticeably more dirty, with moss floating on its surface. Nonetheless, he persisted despite his disgust. In the center of the wall was a submerged archway, which he swam under.

 

On the other side of the archway was a sort of water-filled pen with a pillar in the middle. To his relief, there was a lip that protruded out on the bottom of the pillar that he used to take a short rest and shake the moss out of his hair. The pillar had a series of nine ledges on it that he propelled himself up using.

 

At the top he found himself in a hallway of sorts, hemmed in on either side by more wrought-iron fencing. He went down it, finding at the end a set of stairs. Ascending those, he heard a noise like a tornado and a massive shape swooped by overhead. Wander looked up, and his jaw dropped.

 

The next Colossus was not humanoid, but a massive bird. It banked into a turn as it flew over the water, kicking up a small wave in its wake, then came to perch on a huge pillar some distance away from where Wander stood. The lake had several half-destroyed structures dotting it, including things that looked like bridges, spiked obelisks, small platforms of stone that jutted just out of the water, and the single giant pillar the Colossus was currently resting on.

 

To his left, the corner of the fenced-in ledge he stood on had broken, leaving a section open for him to jump into the lake. He tightened his quiver’s shoulder strap and top, then after a moment’s hesitation, he took the thirty-foot plunge into the lake. The force of the impact was enough to make him cry out in pain, sending him ten feet underwater. He gulped in a mouthful of lakewater by accident, then shot to the surface, desperate to spit it out and breathe in precious oxygen.

 

He coughed as he broke the surface, puking up a mouthful of water. The Colossus, its long tail dangling over the side of the pillar, regarded him with mild interest, its head following his motions as he swam to the small platforms. Pulling himself up onto the middle one, he looked up at the bird, his brows furrowing. He lightly touched the bow on his back, and grinned evilly.

 

 _The best way to get an animal to attack is to antagonize it,_ Wander thought, pulling his bow off his back, grabbing an arrow out of his waterlogged quiver and putting on his thumb ring. _And if this one is going to present such an easy target for that, who am I to say no?_

 

He took aim at the bird’s underside, drawing his bowstring back to maximum tension, then let the arrow fly. His aim was dead-on, the Colossus letting out a high-pitched screech as it was hit. Wander closed his quiver faster than he ever had as the Colossus took off from its perch, swooping down towards him.

 

Wander had half a second to realize on the beast’s shoulders, there were patches of fur he could grab onto. Tensing his leg muscles, he jumped for the fur just as the creature was about to ram into him. The impact knocked the wind out of him for the second time in five minutes, but he managed to keep hold. The huge bird quickly gained altitude by flying in an upwards arc, then flapped its wings (causing Wander to flail like a ragdoll) pulled a sharp one-hundred-eighty degree turn to avoid smashing right into the lake entrance tower, and took off to the west, soaring around the lake.

 

Wander climbed up to the monster’s back once it had leveled out, shaking his head. He narrowed his eyes, trying to block out the intense wind blowing in his face. One thing was for sure: He _had_ to keep a firm grip on the fur at all times or else he would be blown off. _And a fall into water from this height will kill me…_ he thought grimly.

 

Still crouched and keeping a tight grip on the fur, he unsheathed his sword, and held it up. The light beam appeared, albeit somewhat weakly, the light of dusk not doing much to sustain it. The light beam pointed to the end of the creature’s long tail, where it illuminated a Sigil. Wander stood up, making sure he had secure footing before taking a step.

 

The wind, much to his surprise, was a major help in getting him to where to needed to go, as it pushed him along at quite a fast rate. He had to crouch down at one point to grab the fur as the creature banked into a turn, but otherwise, it went smoothly.

 

He plunged his blade into the glowing mark, which caused the bird to squeal and spasm in pain, but do nothing besides that. Wander just gave another bloodthirsty grin. “Well, that just makes my job easier,” he muttered. He closed his mouth and held his breath, then pulled the sword out. A geyser of black blood squirted out of the wound, covering him, but a lot of it was blown away in the wind. He stabbed the Colossus again, harder this time. A bigger geyser of blood gushed from the wound, but still, the Sigil did not vanish. With an infuriated growl, Wander stabbed yet again, burying the blade all the way up to the guard in the creature’s skin.

 

This time, the Sigil disappeared. Wander yanked his stolen blade free with a grunt of effort, getting sprayed the resulting gush of blood. _Shit, this thing must have more than one Sigil!_ He thought. He turned around, droplets of blood getting blown off his face by the wind, and his tabard stuck to his chest from the substance.

 

All the while, the Colossus just kept flying without an apparent care in the world, like it was oblivious to the fact that something wanted it dead. Wander held up his sword once more, and the light beam appeared. When he pointed it at the bird’s wings, a Sigil appeared on each one in turn. To his good fortune, there were fairly large fur patches on each wing.

 

The wind was against him as he made his way up the bird’s tail, heading to its upper back. The Colossus occasionally made turns to avoid crashing into the rock walls that encircled the lake, flapping its wings to keep aloft, but did nothing besides that. It was almost insulting how little attention it was paying to him, but he had no time to think about that.

 

During a moment of relative safety, when the Colossus wasn’t flapping its wings or banking into a turn, he quickly ran across its left wing and grabbed hold of the fur. Unfortunately for him, the beast flapped its wings before it he could raise his sword to stab, causing him to nearly lose his grip. Once the teeth-rattling sensation of being tossed around subsided, he plunged his blade into the glowing mark and pulled it out, causing a geyser of black blood to fly into his face.

 

The Colossus squawked in agony, performing a counter-clockwise midair roll to try and shake Wander off. For two horrifying, heart-pounding seconds, Wander was left hanging by his fingertips as the bird went upside-down in the apex of its roll, and then the world righted itself again.

 

However, it wasn’t over. The Colossus then gave three great flaps of its wings, harder than any before them, in an attempt to dislodge the tiny human. Wander screamed in pain as his wrists were snapped up and down, his whole body weight being put on them as he flapped like a flag in the wind. With no time to address the burning pain, he plunged the Ancient Sword into the Sigil, then ripped it out. This time, the Sigil disappeared, but due to the pain in his wrists, he was unable to hold on this time during the beast’s roll, and his grip gave out.

 

With a scream of fear, he fell, but by whatever miracle, the blowing wind pushed him back in line with the monster’s tail just as it leveled out, and he landed with a hard THUD halfway down the tail. Breathing heavily, and certain he’d at least bruised an ankle, he kept a light grip on the fur to avoid being blown away, closing and opening his hands in turn, wincing at the sharp pain that shot through them.

 

 _This thing flapping its wings really hurt my wrists,_ he thought. _I’m not sure how badly… but I have to kill it now more than ever!_

 

He stood up, hissing as a jolt of pain went through his right ankle, but he grit his teeth and endured it. The last Sigil was on the bird’s right wing, so he gradually and carefully made his way up the tail. He braced himself, then ran as fast as his injured ankle would permit onto the wing. Without thinking about the roll that would follow, he plunged his blade into the Sigil. This time, the beast rolled clockwise, Wander screaming in pain as he clung on for dear life. Before the Colossus could flap its wings in a move that surely would have knocked Wander off to his death, he plunged his blade in one final time.

 

Time once more seemed to slow down as his blade delivered the killing blow, the beast giving a final cry before its now lifeless body went into freefall. It was all Wander could do to keep a grip on the corpse as it tilted to the left just before it slammed into the lake. It was a move the beast would have no doubt regretted had it known, as its body crashing into the lake in this way was what broke the water’s surface tension, shielding Wander from dismemberment and death.

 

Wander swam up to the surface as the corpse sank, the black shroud covering it even underwater, utterly spent and aching. He would not feel the pain for long, though, as the black tendrils pierced him through the back, making his body go numb. The next thing he felt was the sensation of being pulled through a tunnel of light, where he heard the same voice as before...


	7. Tomb of the Goliath

** **In the Shadow of the Beasts Redux** **

By: Rylek196

The Sixth: The Goliath, Barba

Night had fallen once again on the Forbidden Lands. Five humanoid shadows looked down on Wander. If they were not in Dormin's light, they would have been invisible save for their glowing white eyes. The shadow humanoids sank into the floor as cracks appeared in the idol of the fifth Colossus, light streaming forth from the cracks and piercing the gloom. The idol then exploded, crumbling into rubble, the noise rousing Wander from his slumber.

Freed from the comforting grip of rest, pain was there to greet Wander as soon as his eyes opened. He hissed in agony, rolling over onto his back and trying in vain to rub his wrists. It was official: being flapped around the wings of the fifth Colossus had torn the muscles in his wrists, and possibly damaged some of the muscles in his forearms, too. "Ahg... Fuck... Fuck!" Wander cursed. He glanced at Mono, upside-down from his position of lying on his back, and angry tears welled up in his eyes. He couldn't climb the Colossi with torn wrist muscles, and therefore couldn't finish this quest. He had failed.

From above, Dormin's voice rang out.  ** **"Thou art injured,"** ** the guttural voice said, sounding surprisingly concerned.

"Yes... I fucking... am, Dormin..." Wander said through gritted teeth.

** **"It is of no concern..."** **  the voice went on.  ** **"There is a small altar just outside this Shrine... If thou shouldst offer a prayer before it, thy wounds will be healed...** **

Groaning, Wander made it to his feet, and went down one of the staircases leading out of the Shrine of Worship. In between the two sets of stairs, there was another, shorter flight of them, at the top of which was a glowing, rectangular stone, just over twice as tall as he was. Wander ascended the stairs up to this stone, and knelt before it. "Please..." he whispered. "Whatever force is listening, heal me. Let me accomplish my task to revive my beloved, I beg you..."

As soon as he finished his plea, the base of the stone glowed brighter with an orange light, quickly enveloping him. The next few seconds, however, were agony as torn muscles literally knit themselves back together under his skin. Wander scream, but was unable to do anything to assuage the pain. Within a few seconds, it was gone, leaving the damaged muscles good as new. Breathing heavily, Wander gave both his hands an experimental clench, feeling nothing but flesh against flesh as his fingertips touched his palms.  _ _This is miraculous,_ _ he thought.  _ _Though I don't wish to go through that again._ _ Seeing that his thumb ring was still on, he took it off and secured it once more to his belt.

Dormin's voice again sounded in his mind _ _._ _ ** **"Thou art now healed... There are other stones similar to that one scattered throughout this land... Thou wouldst do well to remember this. Now, return to the Shrine. Thou must need thy rest..."** **

Nodding his head in agreement (even though there was no one with a physical body around to agree  _ _to_ _ ) Wander whistled for Agro, the horse running from out of the darkness. He led her up the stairs, once more resting his head against her side in Dormin's light, letting sleep and memories overtake him...

Wander cursed under his breath as his feet sank into the snow, winter's harsh winds blowing directly in his face.  _ _I swear, if I have to do this regularly, I am moving my yurt closer to the village come spring,_ _ he thought. Given how icy breezes now blew, their twisted mockery of human whistling creating an eerie sound across the steppes, his outfit from warmer months was obviously out.

He now wore thick boots made of leather and fur, a much thicker, long-sleeved tunic adorned with a hood, leather gloves on his hands, and black pants instead of green shorts. Mono had evidently been lying through her teeth (like Wander knew she was) when she said she wore dresses year-round, as her outfit was similar to his for such weather. After nearly half an hour of trudging through snow, he finally reached the outcropping of rock on which Lord Emon's temple was built. Behind the temple's east wall were the stables for the horses, as well as a private stable for Emon's personal steed. He slammed his fist against the front double doors three times in order to be heard over the howling wind.

To his surprise, Mono was the one who opened them. He stared at her in silence for a few seconds. "Well?" Mono said, smirking. "Are you going to come inside? Unless you  _ _like_ _ the chill- it wouldn't surprise me, given how black and cold your heart is."

Wander just narrowed his eyes and growled, barely holding himself back from physically lashing out at her for that snide remark. Without a word, he walked inside, Mono shutting the doors behind him. Wander stomped his feet on the floor, getting the snow off his boots, and flipped his hood back. "What's the matter?" he shot back with acid in his tone. "Still a bit mad that you caught me hunting a few more times a couple months back?"

It was true. In order to get in some last-minute meat for the village, Wander had gone back to the woods, and on three of these occasions, Mono had caught him skinning his catches alive. She had neglected to tell anyone about these incidents, for reasons unknown to him.

Mono's face blazed with anger. "I am only going to say this one last time: What you were doing was  _ _not._ _ Fucking.  _ _HUNTING!"_ _ she almost yelled. "It is  _ _slaughter!_ _ And frankly, you should be utterly ashamed of what you're doing. Now come with me to my quarters- and no, I do  _ _not_ _ mean it like that."

They went down a hall and took a left. Mono's room was down another short hallway, and again, he was surprised to see it was sparsely furnished.  _ _Maybe we have more in common then I first assumed,_ _ he thought. "Well, about the hunting- you don't need to worry about that for a while. The Great Khan forbids hunting during animal mating seasons."

"You think I don't know that?" Mono said. "I'm not an idiot, Wander. And you're completely missing my point. You shouldn't be doing that, period. It's sick and twisted."

"If you're just going to antagonize me, then I'm just going to leave," Wander said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"And if you do that, I'll report you to your superiors, and you'll be executed," Mono smirked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Wander swore under his breath, stopping at the door. "Fine, I'll stay." The begrudging tone in his voice was clear.

Mono smiled to herself. Maybe  _ _that_ _ was a chink in the armor, a vulnerability that she could exploit to try and pick apart his twisted brain. "For someone who skins animals alive because he thinks it's 'fun', you do have a surprising amount of discipline."

"I'm not too keen on dying," Wander shrugged.

"And yet, you enjoy being a bringer  _ _of_ _ death," Mono replied. "Is it because you like exerting that control, being in charge of whether something lives or dies?"

Wander looked down and to the left, actually taking a good ten seconds to answer. "Maybe," he said at last. "I admit, I do get a thrill in lining up a kill shot."

Mono's eyes widened, and for a second, she thought she was getting somewhere. That all evaporated in an instant when Wander added, "You should try it sometime. I've never seen you with a bow and arrow, come to think of it."

"Are you... you can't possibly..." the young woman trailed off, her mouth gaping like a fish. "You can't possibly be so... so  _ _twisted_ _ as to try and drag me into your horrible habits!"

"What the hell are you talk-" Wander began, but Mono cut him off.

"Get out," she growled. When Wander did nothing but give her a bewildered expression, she said again at a near-shout , "Get  _ _out_ _ of this room!"

Wander simply narrowed his eyes. "Fine," he hissed. "But you're coming to me tomorrow."

"I can live with that," Mono said. "Now get out."

Scowling, Wander walked out of the room, exited the temple, and began the long trudge home.

The next day, Wander was up at the crack of dawn, and had only just finished preparing his breakfast- meat boiled in a pot over his stove seasoned with garlic to add an extra bit of flavour- when he heard Mono's voice yell from outside. "Wander! Get this door open!"

Wander only rolled his eyes, calling back, "You can just come in, you know."

The yurt's door creaked open, letting both Mono, and a brief gust of chilly air, inside. The latter caused the hairs on Wander's arms to stand on end, because, as Mono saw, he had foregone wearing a shirt.

A blush instantly spread across the girl's face like a raging wildfire as she observed Wander's bare torso. Four of his abdominal muscles were clearly visible, while his pectorals were toned and strong, to say nothing of his biceps.  _ _Oh... my,_ _ Mono thought.  _ _Perhaps I was wrong about him. He's... really attractive. In looks, at least._ _

Though she would  _ _NEVER_ _ say this out loud to anyone, Mono knew it was now going to be  _ _very_ _ difficult to keep from pleasuring herself with that image now burned into her brain. Truth be told, pleasuring herself had been her coping mechanism for keeping her sanity due to Wander's attitude.

Wander was not oblivious to Mono's staring, and smirked, walking towards her and stopping in front of her. "You're not even going to hide the fact that you're turned on, are you?"

"I could, but I don't see the  _ _point,"_ _ Mono smiled, poking him in the chest with her index finger at that word. She shivered slightly at the hardness of his muscles. "I won't lie- you look great. It seems all that brutal conditioning you put yourself through wasn't a waste of time."

"Obviously not."

"It's just a shame that your personality is far uglier than your physical appearance."

_ _That_ _ deflated the rather sexually charged mood in a heartbeat. Wander scoffed and went back to his food. Unknown to him, Mono's face scrunched up in an odd combination of sympathy and disgust at the scars on his back from the whippings he had been through. "This should be almost done. Do you want any?"

"So long as you haven't poisoned it, yes."

_ _There's that sarcasm again,_ _ Wander thought, rolling his eyes. Nevertheless, he took the meat strips out of the pot by spearing them with a knife and putting them on a plate, gesturing to Mono to help herself. They sat and ate in silence for a minute, Mono finding the meal to be quite tasty, even though she didn't say so aloud.

"So," Wander said after finishing his second meat strip, "Why  _ _did_ _ you get angry at me yesterday?"

"Because I actually have a conscience?" Mono answered. At Wander's dark glare, she added, "And there it is- your anger coming out again. Look, I'm not adverse to  _ _hunting-_ _ we have to eat to live, after all, everything does- it's just that how you do it is just... just inhumane."

"Well, have you ever hunted before?" Wander asked.

Mono scowled at him, looking like she was about to explode like the day before, but then seemingly thought better of it. She took another strip of meat off the plate and ate it before answering. "No," she said.

"Why?"

Mono mumbled something under her breath that Wander didn't quite catch.

"Say again?" he said.

"I said I'm not very good with a bow and arrow," Mono replied, her voice still barely audible. At Wander's bewildered expression, she looked away sheepishly. "I know, it's ironic, isn't it? Every time I've tried, my shots have gone wildly astray. I've never even come close to hitting the target. I am decent with throwing knives, for what it's worth."

"So  _ _that_ _ is why you were so impressed with my marksmanship that day, and how you were so easily able to subdue me with my own knife," Wander said.

"Yes on both counts," Mono said. "I do have some- not a lot, but some- training with bladed weapons."

"Well, I can teach you, if you'd like."

"So long as you don't drag me into your awful habits, I may have to take you up on that," Mono said. Wander just smiled, and went back to his food.

Wander's eyes cracked open, and he lifted his hand to his face as he once again escaped the grasp of sleep. He pushed himself to his feet, giving Agro a pat to wake her up, too.

As soon as Agro had gotten to her feet, Dormin's voice sounded throughout the Shrine.  ** **"Thy next foe is... A giant lurks underneath the temple... It lusts for destruction... but a fool, it is not..."** **

The voice faded, leaving Wander alone for the sixth time. Also for the sixth time, Wander walked out onto the balcony over the southern plains of the Forbidden Lands, and held up his blade. This time, he was pointing the exact correct direction: southwest. Without a word, yet with a longing glance at Mono, he mounted Agro and began riding towards where the beam pointed. The ride was similar to the one he took when getting to the first Colossus, covering almost the exact same ground, but this time he was traveling roughly parallel to the cliffs where that now-dead beast roamed.

Soon, large rock formations to his right started funneling him where he needed to go with more precision. Atop these formations, he could see man-made stone pillars, and beyond that, the towering trees of a forest. Soon, the rock formations herded him towards this forest. He pulled back on the reins to slow Agro to a walk as he entered this lush palace of greenery.

He slowly rode Agro through the woods, the sounds of nature- bird calls, the croaking of frogs, and whatnot- providing an organic symphony that nearly drowned out the wind. Still, he couldn't help but find the forest somewhat unsettling for a reason he couldn't quite put his finger on, until it hit him.  _ _I can't see any of the animals that are making all this noise,_ _ he thought.  _ _I can't even see any bird's nests. It's like this forest is populated by ghosts._ _

Doing his best to sweep that unpleasant thought under the rug, he pressed on. The forest's trees were a combination of evergreen pineneedle and deciduous, with large parts of the floor coloured a rusty brown from the all the fallen pine needles. These formed natural pathways, with smaller shrubs and bushes growing off to the side of these.

To the left, a little ways off the beaten path, Wander saw another of the stone shrines.  _ _Wait... are those what Dormin spoke of?_ _  he thought.  _ _I can't even believe this... I passed one completely by on my way to the fifth Colossus!_ _ Cursing himself, but having no use for the shrine at the current moment, he left it behind.

Shortly after that, he came to a fork in the path.  _ _Shit. This a total luck-of-the-draw choice._ _

Carefully weighing his options, Wander in the end decided on the left path. This in fact turned out to the correct way to go, for after another ten minutes of winding around trees, the forest ended in a similar fashion to the one he had trekked through to get to the Forbidden Lands in the first place. Finally able to use the light beam again, he reaffirmed his way with it, finding he was indeed still going in the right direction.

He crossed a short land bridge (which, surprisingly, was above a small grassy area, not suspended over a massive chasm) that led to a tunnel. He went through that... and emerged into a massive desert. The heat of the sun began to beat down on Wander in an instant, swear beading on his forehead a second later. However, he was now able to use beam at its full power, and it pointed to what looked like a large structure built into the side of a small mountain some distance away.

He spurred Agro on once more, with the pair making a beeline for the structure. The wind picked up a bit as he approached, forcing him to squint as the sand was blown around. Soon it subsided, leaving Wander to marvel at the massive stone temple he was now in the shadow of. What was once undoubtedly a mighty building was now intimidating for its size alone, as time had taken its toll, chipping away the stone and leaving it discoloured with age in many places. Strange blue embossings that resembled teardrop shapes adorned its many pillars, but Wander found that a pile of rubble blocked the entrance.  _ _He_ _ could easily get over it, but as for Agro...

The young man sighed as he dismounted her. "Go on back to the Shrine, girl," he said, giving her a pat on the side.

As Agro ran off, he looked to the horizon behind him. The light beams from the five fallen Colossi stretched high into the sky. He narrowed his eyes at the sight, then climbed over the rubble pile and went down a flight of stairs leading inside the temple. What greeted him at the bottom was a sharp 90-degree turn followed by a linear underground hallway.  _ _This does line up with what Dormin said,_ _ Wander thought, climbing over more fallen rubble in his way. There was a crack in the ceiling, letting a bit of light filter down into the tunnel. He clambered over two more rubble piles in his way, then went down another flight of stairs, ending up in a massive cavern.

The first thing about the cavern that surprised him was that to his left and right as he entered, were torches on the wall.  _ _Lit_ _ torches.  _ _But... this makes no sense,_ _ he thought.  _ _If this land has been abandoned for ages, this fire should have gone out long ago._ _ Looking ahead slightly, he could see two more instances of fire on either side of the big, wide ledge he stood on, this fire burning in braziers near the walls.

Beyond that, Wander could see the cavern was divided into three sections by walls he estimated to be about ten feet high. A huge pillar with two curved sections on either side was in the rough center of the room, and there was a big hole in the roof near the cavern's far wall, letting light in. He could also see in that area a wall of pillars, not too dissimilar to how the aboveground temple looked.

Wander walked to the ledge's lip, and peered down. The wall below him had dozens of small ledges on it that he could use to safely get down to the floor. He took it slow, dropping down one ledge at a time, until he was at the bottom. Almost as soon as his feet touched the ground, there was a rumbling as the wall he had just climbed down began to retract, sliding down into a groove in the floor. His heart hammering in his chest like a mad drumbeat, Wander turned around and beheld the next Colossus as it came out of it its hiding place.

It was a massive humanoid, similar to the first Colossus Wander had slain, but much bulkier and without any sort of weapon. Its fur was silver and wiry, its tough skin dark gray. its arms were huge and its legs chunky, as was its fur-covered upper torso. The most noteworthy feature of this monster, however, was not its build, but its beard. A mass of fur hung off its chin in a way that resembled shaggy facial hair.

The Colossus raised one giant fist in an effort to crush the intruder into pulp. Wander ran for his life as the appendage came down, making both a crater in the stone floor and a shockwave that knocked him off his feet. Growling angrily, he pushed himself up again, running for the first wall that blocked his path. Though it seemed impassible (there were even sections of it that were covered with rusted iron bars), he saw other sections of it that had short half-pillars set into semi-circular grooves in the wall. These he could climb with no trouble.

He jumped, grabbing the edge of one of the half-pillars, getting on top of it, then on top of the wall. The beast saw all this, starting to march towards him Figuring that a ten-foot drop was better than getting squashed by an eighty-foot-tall Colossus, Wander jumped off the wall back to the ground. Seconds later, the Colossus just walked through the wall like it wasn't even there, making a beeline for Wander.

Wander ran to the second wall, the Colossus right on his heels. He climbed the wall and jumped off it as the monster again raised a fist and brought it down, smashing the wall to bits. The fallout from this rained rock dust everywhere, coating Wander in a fine gray powder. "Fuck!" he yelled, shaking his head to clear some of the dust from his face and hair, stumbling for the next and final wall. He climbed over it, coming to the wall of pillars he had seen before taking on the Colossus. His face then twisted into fear. The wall of pillars was a dead end. It was nothing but a shallow cave, with some of the pillars providing hiding spots, but that was it.  _ _Damn it,_ _ he thought. Nonetheless, he took shelter in the cave behind one of the pillars to catch his breath a little.

Dormin's voice then sounded, reminding him of a huge detail he had forgotten.  ** **"Use thy sword to find its vitals..."** **

Wander's expression changed again, this time into one of anger.  _ _Oh, SHIT! How the fuck do I keep forgetting to do that!?_ _

The Colossus, having no idea where Wander went, stomped through the rest of the third wall, destroying it saw this as he poked his head around the corner to look.  _ _It lusts for destruction, indeed,_ _ he thought.

Regardless, the Colossus had just helped him without knowing it. By knocking down the wall, it had created a much more open space for Wander to run around and dodge the monster's subsequent attempts to crush him. With a bloodthirsty smirk, he ran out from his hiding place, Ancient Sword gripped in his fist. Luckily for him, the Colossus had its back turned, meaning the young man was able to hold up his blade and affirm the location of the beast's first Sigil: the lower-left side of its back.

The beast seemed to sense its weak point had been revealed, and was none-too-pleased with this. It turned around to face the tiny human, but as it did so, Wander moved the beam around some, lighting up another Sigil on the back of the monster's left hand.  _ _And I think I know exactly where the last one is,_ _ Wander thought, letting his arm fall.

Wander ran back to his hiding place as the Colossusonce more stomped towards him. He hid behind one of the pillars, the Colossus actually  _ _kneeling down to look for him!_ _ Better yet, it placed its left palm on the ground, leaving its hand Sigil wide open."A fool it is not," Wander scoffed aloud. "I beg to differ, Dormin."

He sprinted out of his hiding place, running atop the beast's giant index finger to the top of its hand, the monster standing again as he got a grip on the fur there. He then readied his blade and plunged it into the tough skin. The Colossus let out a grunt of pain a geyser of sticky black blood ejecting from the wound.

The monster flung its arm back to try and dislodge Wander, but it was in vain. The human was now stuck good to the back of its hand. The beast tried again, harder this time, and yet again, it was to no avail. Now starting to panic, the creature tried  _ _again,_ _ but could still feel the sensation of the human on the back of its hand, pulling on the fur.

Wander, for his part, endured this constant shaking with gritted teeth and a tight grip. Even though his legs and upper torso were now glued to the beast's fur, he had to get rid of this Sigil and get off as soon as possible. Just as the Colossus was about to pitch its arm back once more, he plunged his blade into the glowing mark. To his relief, the symbol vanished in a spray of black blood, but now he had a new problem: he now could not pry himself off. The blood, which up to this point had been so helpful in keeping him on the Colossi, was now working against him.

The Colossus kept swinging its arm back and forth, desperately trying to pitch Wander off, each time causing his head to rattle around. Finally, he managed to get one arm free, and pushed against the beast's skin, using it as leverage to pop himself off. With a  _ _riiiip_ _  that caused a patch of fur to come loose along with himself, he was free, dropping to the floor, more than a little disoriented from being tossed around so much.

He stumbled back to his hiding place to regain his bearings and recuperate for a second. A second was all the Colossus was going to give him, though, as it knelt down again, its beard brushing the ground, and after a few seconds of finding nothing, gave the pillars a smack with the back of its right hand to coax Wander out.

With little choice, lest a repeated pounding actually bring the cave ceiling down on his head, Wander ran for the Colossus's beard and jumped onto it, beginning to climb it. The Colossus stood up to its full height as it felt the human in its beard, but was too late to do anything to stop Wander as he jumped from the facial hair to its equally furry chest, and climbing to its head from there.

Wander had been dead on the mark when he predicted that the monster's last Sigil would be on its head, for as he got close, it lit up like a blue bonfire in reply to the Ancient Sword's presence. He did note that this Sigil was canted slightly to the left, but for what reason, he couldn't say. He got into position and readied his blade for a strike, but before he could land the stab, the dipped its head down and tossed it back with great force.

Wander was thrown about, but he just held on, even through the flip-flops his stomach was doing. Not allowing the creature to try that again, he stabbed his blade into the Sigil. An eruption of black blood came out of the wound, utterly coating him in the stuff.

Now desperate to knock Wander off it, the Colossus shook its head from side to side, but Wander was not even budged by this. He merely rammed his blade into the creature's skull yet again, causing another jet of black blood to spurt out.

With enormous effort, he pulled himself out of the tangled, blood-soaked silver fur, standing and making his way across the creature's hunched shoulders to get to its back. The Colossus shook its shoulders like one would to rid themselves of a fly, but this only knocked Wander off his feet, and he immediately righted himself, anyway.

He climbed down the beast's back as it stomped around. The Sigil was located near the beast's waist, but he was still over forty feet off the ground. One slip and he would fall a distance that would (if he was lucky) break his legs. If he wasn't lucky... Gritting his teeth, he stabbed the Sigil once, and again, was covered in black, inky blood. The Colossus roared in agony, tossing its upper body side-to-side, but it was futile. Wander plunged his blade into the Sigil for the final time.

With a gurgling gasp of pain, the Colossus pitched forward, collapsing, Wander holding on for dear life. Knowing that running was pointless, he simply let the black tendrils stab into him. Only one thought ran through his mind as darkness claimed him, ringing loud and clear with sick satisfaction:  _ _Ten more to go._ _


	8. Lightning on the Lake

**In the Shadow of the Beasts**

 

**By: Rylek196**

 

**The Seventh: Leviathan, Hydrus**

 

Now six humanoid shadows encircled Wander, looking down upon him as he lay in the Shrine in Dormin's light. As always when a Colossus fell, so too did their idol, and it was no different this time. Glowing cracks appeared in the statue of the bearded behemoth, and then it exploded, the shadows having sunk into the floor beforehand.

 

Wander stirred from his unconscious slumber, feeling a bit sore, but 'sore' was nothing he couldn't handle, and nothing compared to literally having his wrist muscles torn. He looked up at the circular hole in the roof, ready to receive his next clue, and Dormin was more than ready to deliver it.

 

**"Thy next foe is... A ruin hidden in the lake... A ripple of thunder lurks underwater..."**

 

With that rather ominous statement out of the way, the voice faded into silence. Wander looked toward Mono, and his eyes widened. "Oh, shit!" he exclaimed. Now there were _six_ doves pecking around the altar where she lay! Growling murderously, he ran for the altar, unsheathing his blade as he went. "Get away!" he yelled, taking wild swings at the birds with the Ancient Sword. "All of you!"

 

The doves, frightened by this, flew off, scattering to the four winds. "Why do those things keep appearing?" Wander growled to himself. "And every time I kill a Colossus, there's another one. It makes no goddamn sense...". Either way, if this kept up, he would have no choice but to start shooting them down, even if he didn't want to waste arrows by doing so.

 

He then walked out onto the Shrine's southern balcony, and held up his blade, as had become routine by this point. The beam appeared in the midday sun, but was scattered and unfocused. Furrowing his brows, he turned around, finding the beams coalesced into a single, powerful one when pointed northwest. Turning back around, he saw Agro grazing on the yellow-green grass in the fields below him, and went out to fetch her.

 

He mounted her, riding around the left side of the Shrine of Worship and taking the same land bridge he used to get to the third Colossus. He passed by the corpse of the second Colossus once more, the earthen body still laying in the sand of the cove far below.

 

With the bridge behind him, he reared Agro to a halt, holding up his blade again. To his surprise and annoyance, the beam pointed directly to the location of the third Colossus. "What the hell...?" he said aloud to himself. "Surely this doesn't mean I have to fight that thing again... does it?"

 

He pondered for a few seconds, looking to the vast desert ahead of him. _Unless... the next Colossus lies_ beyond _that desert,_ he thought. _The sword does only seem to give a general direction, after all._

 

Figuring it was worth the gamble, he spurred Agro on again, heading straight north, into the vast desert, riding parallel to the bridge on its left side. While huge, the desert was anything _but_ empty. Two big rock spires, each about a hundred and fifty feet tall, jutted up out of the sand at different points, creating natural skyscrapers. There were other rock formations, too, but these were much smaller.

 

Just beyond the first big rock spire, there was another small shrine. Wander stopped at it, kneeling before the glowing stone, feeling whatever muscle fatigue he currently had fade away with a far more pleasant sensation of being dunked in warm water came over him as compared to the last time.

 

He then kept going, but one thing the shrines could not heal, it seemed, was hunger. His stomach let out a loud growl when he was barely twenty feet away from the shrine. _Damn... how long has it been since I've eaten anything?_ he thought. To his horror, he realized it was more than a day. The fruit on the tree he ate before going to the third Colossus had been his only meal so far in the Forbidden Lands, but in all the commotion of fighting the Colossi, he had simply forgotten to find anything to eat. Now, though, he was paying the price for that tardiness.

 

However, as he crested the next sand dune, he saw something of a miracle, and the solution to his problem. It was a tree, of the same fruit-bearing species he had seen before, sitting in a small oasis some distance away. Immediately, he made right for it. When he reached it, he hopped off Agro, climbing the moss that had grown on one side of it, and shook the branches once at the top. Fruit again rained down. Wander got down from the tree, and dug into his plunder. Unlike the last fruits, these were quite sour, so he didn't like them as much, but sustenance was sustenance.

 

He ate three of the six fruits while Agro drank from the nearby pool of water. He gave the rest of the fruits to her, and she quickly gobbled them up as he took his turn getting a drink of water. Now with bellies full (or at the very least not empty) they could finally move on.

 

Wander held up his sword, the beam pointing west, leading him deeper into the desert, towards a destination unknown. He spurred Agro on, and they took off. The sun sunk lower in the sky as they progressed across the sandy terrain, nearing dusk as they came to a more rocky area. There was another shrine nearby, but Wander ignored it, having no use for it. He could see man-made pillars not too far away, and headed for those. He rode up a hill with a gentle slope punctuated by the remains of a staircase, long since worn away by the ages. At the top of the hill was a staircase- man-made, judging by the carved stone inlaid on the ground. The pillars he had noticed were in fact situated on top of a wall that ran the whole length of the plateau, with the only way through being an archway.

 

He went through it, only to find it led onto a bridge overlookinga large lake filled with murky, green water. There were six pillars jutting out of the water at various points, most of them canted at an angle from age. _It seems like this Colossus is aquatic,_ Wander thought. He looked over the right side of the bridge by chance, and got a look at what he was _sure_ was his opponent. Under the water, and partially camouflaged by the shadow of the bridge it currently resided in, was a huge, serpentine shape. What made it even able to be seen in the first place, were the three orange spikes on its back, glowing with a form of energy that looked like lightning.

 

Wander furrowed his brows, his eyes narrowing. That lightning could mean just one thing: The Colossus was ready for invaders, as its defense mechanism was active. He came to the end of the bridge, as it had broken in half long ago, and dismounted Agro. A pillar with a spiraling path carved around it- the middle of the bridge in ages long past, apparently- was just ahead of him. Wander sized up the gap, seeing that he could easily jump to it. He patted Agro on the side, and the horse turned around and ran back to the Shrine of Worship. _She's getting to know me better,_ Wander thought, then jumped onto the pillar and descended down the ramp, wading into the water after sheathing his sword snd making sure his effects were secure.

 

However, the Colossus sensed the ripples in the water Wander caused. Roused from its peaceful slumber, it began to move. It swam in the general area around the pillar where Wander currently was, letting out a growl. Its long, catfish-like whiskers helped it detect the ripples with great accuracy.

 

For about thirty seconds, the Colossus just swam idly underneath Wander, but then its blue eyes turned as orange as the bioluminescent bulbs lining the sides of its body, and made an upwards beeline for the young warrior. "Oh, shit!" Wander said, swimming to a broken chunk of the bridge's west side that protruded out of the water. He made it just as as the monster broke the surface, the three lightning spikes on its back electrifying the water in turn.

 

Wander's eyes widened. If he was in the vicinity of those spikes when they broke the surface, they would fry him to a crisp. Seconds later, the eel-catfish's tail broke the surface, revealing it to be covered in fur. Wander knew now how he would get onto the beast, but going back into the water was suicide, but he stayed where he was, watching for the creature's next move.

 

The Colossus roared, the sound coming across even more unearthly from underwater, as it circled the chunk of rubble, then swam away. Wander just gave a sigh of relief, thinking he had gotten a moment to catch his breath... but then the Colossus turned around, coming back with frightening speed. Wander figured out what was going to happen two seconds before it did, and therefore it was too late to react. The eel-creature rammed the submerged section of the bridge, shaking it and causing cracks to appear in the stone.

 

"Damn!" Wander yelled. He let out a fearful noise as the Colossus swam away to try the tactic again. "Shit... a few more of those impacts and this thing is going to shatter," he added. He sighed again, this time in resignation. "I don't have much choice _but_ to go for a swim, then," Having no reason to believe the Sigil was anywhere except the beast's head, he vaulted over the side of the bridge where the Colossus wasn't, splashing down into the water. Just after he did this, the Colossus rammed the bridge piece again, knocking it even more askew. It roared again, knowing that its quarry had gotten away.

 

It swam around the bridge piece, coming up to the surface. Wander saw this, swimming out of the way just as the beast got close. The spikes broke the surface one after the other, the electricity so close he could feel hairs stand on end, but was safe from harm. He repositioned himself above the tail as it came up. His stomach leapt into his throat as he was pulled out of the water when he grabbed hold of the fur, then took a deep breath a split second before he submerged.

 

Holding onto the Colossus as it swam under the lake was like being pulled along by an underwater freight train. The force of the water pushing back against Wander was incredible, and he felt like his arms would tear right out of their sockets, but with pure, adrenaline-fueled strength, he managed to hold on. The beast's massive, serpentine form corkscrewed upwards as it swam to the surface of the lake, breaking it and beginning to swim along it. Wander gulped down huge breaths of oxygen, shaking his head, water droplets flying off his soaked hair. He took his blade out of its scabbard and began running along the Colossus's furry back.

 

Dormin chimed in as Wander made his way to the first electric spike. _**"Sever the power of the radiating horn at its root..."**_ the disembodied voice said, before fading away.

 

Wander ran a good distance up the creature's body, passing by a fourth spike that appeared to have broken off at some point long ago. The Colossus dipped sections of its body underwater as the young man ran across them, no doubt trying to trigger its electric defense mechanism while he was nearby them to fry him. He waded his way to near the first _real_ spike, the constant dunkings doing little but angering him. When the timing was right, he ran up to it, finding a glowing blue crack at its base. With an animalistic snarl, he rammed his blade into the crack, the beast convulsing in pain, giving a higher-pitched roar. The spike turned from orange and crackling with electricity to black and dead, rendered non-functional. A second after that, he was again submerged, having just barely dodged death.

 

The second spike was not too far away, just over a boney ridge on the creature's back. Wander climbed over this, running towards the spike's base. The Colossus was now raising and submerging the sections of its body that Wander ran over with more frequency and aggression now, giving Wander an incredibly short window of time in which to stab the blue crack. He did manage to do so, yet the spike had not completely died by the time the monster dived down, giving him a taste of the shock. Even that minor jolt was enough to make him scream in pain, his muscles seizing up. He let go of the Colossus as it dove down deep into the lake, though both combatants knew this fight was far from over, and wouldn't _be_ over until one of them was dead.

 

Wander breathed heavily while treading water, getting his bearings. The pillar he had started from was now a considerable distance away, putting him near the south end of the lake. The Colossus, too, had swam away, but was now coming around, headed for him once more.

 

"Dammit!" Wander swore, swimming in the opposite direction. Fortunately for him, the dead and destroyed spikes stayed that way and did not heal themselves, so the only remaining spike on the creature was right behind its head. As the giant eel-catfish drew closer, Wander realized it was stupid to swim away, and instead swam _towards_ the creature. The eel was apparently quite surprised by this, evident by the low-pitched growl it made. It swam a little ways past Wander and then turned around, making fast headway for him.

 

Its one remaining spike broke the surface, Wander easily dodging it, then just waiting until the tail breached. _And... NOW!_ he thought at it did so, clinging onto the end as it came within grabbing range. The Colossus once more swam around underwater, its body weaving and winding in beautiful ways like brushstrokes from a master artist. Wander was on the verge of passing out by the time it finally came to the surface. He coughed up water, making it to his feet on shaky legs, running as best he could along the monster's back.

 

He passed by the two destroyed spikes now that they posed no threat to him, going for the head of the eel-creature. He stabbed the glowing crack once he got there, the Colossus dipping its head down violently in pain, the abruptness of such a move almost causing Wander to lose his grip, but he held on. The main Sigil then lit up not five feet away on the creature's head. The eel-catfish dunked its head underwater, but that was a futile effort to make Wander let go. The hunter now had his prey exactly where he wanted it, and he was going to kill it.

 

Wander plunged his blade into the Sigil, and the beast cried out in agony as a geyser of sticky black blood sprayed from the wound, covering Wander's already-soaked clothing in gore. Repeated, quick dunkings of its head proved ineffective at dislodging Wander, but it was all the creature could think to do as Wander stabbed again. By the third stab, it was weakening, knowing its end was near, and gave one last dip of its head to not go down without a fight.

 

However, its actions were as much in vain as the six of its kind before it. Wander delivered the death blow, killing it. The Colossus thrashed around in the water, Wander letting go as it went belly up and sank into the abyss of the lake it called home, now forevermore its grave. Even through the murky depths, he could see the beast's body turning black, the smoky tentacles rushing up to meet him. The next thing he felt was them stab into him, everything going black a moment later.

 

Night had fallen by the time Wander returned to the Shrine of Worship. Now seven shadow humanoids watched over him, Dormin's being the only thing that allowed them to be seen. They sank into the floor as the statue of the seventh Colossus exploded. Seven doves now flew around the altar where Mono lay in eternal rest.

 

Woken from unconsciousness by the sound of the the idol crumbling, a tired Wander pushed himself to his feet, half-expecting Dormin to give him his next clue. When no such thing came, though, he sat down, calling for Agro. The horse ran into the Shrine after a few seconds, laying down to give Wander some place to rest his head. The young man let sleep claim him, falling once again into memories...

 

"Fuck!" Mono cursed as she missed yet another shot with her bow. Wander had taken her to the outskirts of the forest to use the trees as targets. She turned to Wander. "I still don't see why we had to come here specifically."

 

"There are no distractions here," Wander said simply. That was a bold-faced lie. In truth, he had made her trek here to make her miserable. It was now March, and though it was warming slightly, the snow had not yet melted, meaning she had to walk through it to get here. "Try again."

 

Mono tried to land the arrow in the tree's trunk. For the eleventh time, she missed. Also for the eleventh time, she swore.

 

"Again," Wander said.

 

Another shot. Another miss. Another loud curse.

 

Wander just sighed. She was only thirty paces away, yet she couldn't land the arrow on target to save her life.

 

"If I miss again," Mono seethed through clenched teeth, readying another shot, "Then I am giving up for today."

 

"Just try again, dammit," Wander growled.

 

After giving Wander a scathing look for his tone, Mono, with a shaking arm, drew back the bowstring using the ring on her thumb, and fired her twelfth arrow. Yet _again,_ she missed, the arrow flying off into the forest, never to be seen again. Mono just threw down the bow. "I fucking hate this!" she yelled. "Why did I let you talk me into this!? We've been at this for months, and I've managed to hit what you've told me to like, what, three times now!?"

 

Wander just smirked, picking up the bow. He gestured for Mono to hand over her quiver, which she did. He then shot three arrows in quick succession. They landed in a neat triangle grouping in the tree.

 

"Well, of course an expert like you makes it look easy..." Mono grumbled. However, her disgruntled expression quickly changed. She may not have been able to shoot a bow and arrow very well, but she still could...

 

She unsheathed the knife she carried on her belt, flipped it around so she was pinching the blade between her forefinger and thumb, and threw it after taking a few steps forward. The blade landed in the wood with a satisfying _thunk,_ right in the middle of Wander's arrow triad.

 

"You're good with throwing those, I'll give you that," Wander said.

 

"That's good, because I'll probably always be better at knife-throwing than with a bow and arrow," Mono replied. "Either way, I'm done with this for today. I'll see you tomorrow."

 

"Fine by me," Wander said, going to the tree and retrieving his arrows and Mono's knife. "Watching you fail over and over again is getting tiring."

 

They both began heading back to their respective dwellings, but it wasn't until Wander went into his yurt that Mono realized she still had a long way to go. The reason why Wander made her go to the forest outskirts hit her then. "Damn you, Wander!" she shouted, only to hear hysterical laughter from inside the hut.

 

The next day, Wander made the half-hour trek to Emon's temple to meet with Mono. Knocking on the doors, he got no reply. He pushed on them, finding them unlocked, allowing him to walk right in. Closing them behind him, he was about to go to Mono's room, when he heard movement from upstairs. He slowly crept upstairs, hearing voices behind Emon's door. Voices he recognized as Emon's and Naranbaatar's.

 

"-Just received a message," Naranbaatar said. "The Khan's forces have attacked the capital of eastern empire."

 

Wander let out the smallest of gasps so as to not be caught. The Great Khan had done what? And he wasn't there?

 

"I assume it was a success?" Emon said.

 

"Of course it was," Naranbaatarsaid. "According to the report, our forces used prisoners as meat shields to protect them from arrow fire. After the city was taken, nearly everyone was massacred."

 

The two men continued to talk, but Wander couldn't hear them through the blood pounding in his ears. He was furious, his fists clenched so tightly his nails left indentations in his palms and his knucklesturned ghastly white. The battle... his chance to slaughter... he had missed it. His nostrils flaring as he breathed heavily in rage, he descended downstairs. Mono could go fuck herself for all he cared now. He had to do something to calm down before he killed someone.

 

A little while later, Mono exited her room, fresh off a session of... 'helping herself'. She had been worried that Wander would walk in on her self-pleasuring, but he had not shown at all. _Where could he be?_ she thought to herself. She quickly dressed herself in warmer clothes, and went outside.

 

It was there that she spotted Wander. He was riding a horse at full gallop, bow in hand, firing arrow after arrow into the distance. After the horse reached a certain point, he turned it around, continuing this bizarre pattern over and over. After nearly five minutes of watching this, Mono walked closer, calling his name. _"Wander!"_ She _swore_ she saw him glance in her direction, but he kept riding. _"WANDER!"_ Mono yelled again, louder this time, moving closer. Again, she was ignored. _All right, if that's how he wants to fucking do things..._ she thought bitterly.

 

She waited until he stopped firing arrows, indicating he was out of them (his loud exclamation of, "Dammit!" confirmed this), then ran out in front of where he was riding to, spreading out her arms to either side. With a startled cry, he yanked back harshly on the reins, stopping the horse less than a foot from her.

 

"What the fuck was that!?" he yelled, dismounting in short order and storming up to her. He left the horse to roam. "You could have killed yourself just now!"

 

"Well, I didn't, and that's what matters," Mono said, giving him a hard look. "Why did you not come to me today? And more importantly, why were you riding that horse and shooting arrows like a madman?"

  
"I overheard Naranbaatar and Emon talking earlier," Wander said, "Apparently the Khan's forces have attacked the capital of the eastern empire." His voice shook with more and more rage. "They took it down and slaughtered everyone inside, _and I missed it!"_

 

Mono's expression went from stern to horrified. "So... _that's_ why you're angry? B-because you _didn't_ get to murder hundreds of people? You _BASTARD!"_ She shoved him, but he managed to keep his feet. "No matter what I try and fucking do, you still act like this if you don't get the chance to murder something! You're _sick! Fuck! You!"_

 

She tried to shove him again, but he caught both her wrists and held them tightly. "Oh, really?" he seethed. "I never told you this, Mono, but I've wanted to join that campaign since I heard it began- to be able to prove myself in battle. I guess I could try to get there alone, but there's no point. It's a long way away, and I could never carry enough supplies to sustain myself the whole way. Besides, even _if_ by some miracle I managed to get there, everything would be over by the time I did. So yes, I am angry, and you're not helping." His gray-green eyes bored into her blue ones. After a few seconds, he let go of her wrists, pushing her away into the snow. "Now get out of my sight. If you don't, I'll kill you, and don't think that's an empty threat."

 

Fuming, Mono pushed herself to her feet, and simply ran off without saying another word.

 

When she got back to her room, the girl let out a scream of pure frustration that she had holding back. _Fuck! Fuck everything!_ she thought. _He's fucking hopeless. There's nothing I can do to help him._

 

She sank down against a wall, taking deep breaths. In this instance, and many like them, she found that singing did a lot to help her calm down. After nearly ten minutes of throat-singing, she felt much, much calmer, able to think more clearly. Suddenly, she thought of something. It was risky, and it involved digging up a lot of bad memories of her past, but it was all she could think of to hopefully start Wander down the right path. She stood up, taking her shirt off and leaving herself topless, touching her bare back. _If this works... then I'll do it, come what may._

 

The next day, Wander trudged through the slowly-melting snow to meet with Mono. When he reached Emon's temple, Mono was there to meet him. He entered without a word, Mono just staring at him. He swore, though, that he could see something... else, in her eyes, something more hostile and scheming than normal.

 

"Follow me," she said simply and curtly, Wander following her to her room. "I'm guessing you want to know why I snapped at you so badly. Well, _this_ is why." Mono walked to the center of the room, turned so her back was to him, then, to his shock, she gripped the bottom of her shirt and pulled it up and over her head.

 

Wander's eyes widened to the size of plates. Mono's back and the backs of her arms were utterly covered in scars and what seemed to be healed burn marks. "What the hell..?" he breathed.

 

"All these scars are gifts from my so-called 'family'" Mono said, her voice tense as she spat the last word out like it was some kind of foul taste. "You remember how I stormed off all those months ago when we started discussing our families? This is why."

 

She glanced over her shoulder. Wander was still silent, giving her a bewildered look. "I can tell you're shocked, so let me explain." She took a deep breath, then began talking.

 

"I come from another village, being the first of four children. My parents... well, they were not the most loving in the world, but for some reason, _I_ was the only one they actively abused- they claimed I was a 'cursed being' or 'child of shadows' or other such nonsense, and that beating me was 'retribution'. I never even knew what they meant.

 

"The worst part is, they put on a facade of nicety around everyone else, and they knew how to make it s-seem like everything was f-fine." Mono's voice began trembling more and more as she began recalling the dark memories and tears welled up in her eyes. "Th-they continued this h-horrible abuse of me, always giving me t-time to heal before starting a-again, until I was t-ten... when... I-I killed them. I s-slaughtered my entire family in their sleep." She laughed without any trace of humor. "In that way, I-I'm worse th-than you've ever been. As far as I know, y-you've never killed a person, but I've k-killed five. I-I don't even know what possessed me to do it. I just felt this... this hissing in the back of my mind, and the next thing I knew, I had slit all their throats."

 

Mono sniffled, tears now flowing free from her eyes. "After I did that, I ran away, across the steppes for two days straight, with no food, water, and only the clothes on my back. I was half-dead when I was found by traders, and they brought me here, where I was taken in by Lord Emon.

 

"So now... do you see why I snapped at you- why I've had such a short temper towards your attitude?" Mono said. "It's because I know what it's like to be the victim of aggression! I know what it's like to feel helpless and scared! Now, the least you can do, is TRY to start improving, you stupid, selfish _BASTARD!"_ She whirled around on him at the last word, covering her breasts with an arm, her bloodshot eyes filled with tears and deep-seated pain.

 

For once, Wander was speechless. He just stood there, staring at the young woman. After a long silence, he did something Mono did not expect: He gave her a small smirk. "Mono..." he said, turning away, "You are my kind of girl." With that, he was gone, leaving a dumbfounded Mono to wonder if she had gotten through to him at all,

 

The light of the sun hitting Wander's face woke him. It was slightly after mid-morning, he had overslept a bit. He stood, giving a brief stretch to assuage his muscles. Then, Dormin's voice came from the skylight. **"Thy next foe is..."**


End file.
